Solution Second
by FireThatFox
Summary: Sakura goes back in time but finds she is in her child self's body. She realizes she has the opportunity to change things, with a gift from the rabbit goddess, knowledge of the future and the will of fire burning inside her what will she do? Saka/Ita, Saka/Sasu, Saka/Mada COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

..."For my sins, I will send you back, for my son's you will be the love that binds them, forgive me Sakura. I never wanted it to turn out this way." Kaguya lifts up her hands and the balls begin to spin and glow.

"For your protection, a gift of appreciation, a second seal, on the back of your neck. Good luck child, take care of my sons for me." Kaguya lifts the spinning orbs above her head and fuses her remaining chakra into them.

A brilliant flash, voices invade her senses, heat envelopes her. Her soul is being ripped from her body, she feels sick, she is spinning and now, no no no she is falling, thrown back to Earth...nothingness envelops her.

Ugh, her head hurts. She rolls over and something soft touches her face. Her eyes snap open wide, where is she? Sakura sits up in ...her bed? She looks around ...her room. Her hands come up to her face and push her hair out of her eyes. Her...long hair. No! She hops out of her bed and runs to the mirror over her dresser. She is 8 years old again.

"Kaguya you bitch!" She screams.

"Sakura! Is that you? Is everything alright? You're going to be late for your first day at the academy!" Her mom calls to her from downstairs.

The academy? Hum, I think I might be able to make the most out of this the second time around. Her mind is in a whirlwind of possibilities. Sakura grabs a black tee-shirt and red shorts from her drawers and ties her hair up and out of her face with a thick black ribbon and runs out the door. Time to go to school!


	2. Chapter 2

...Everything looks the same, everyone looks so happy and at peace.

-It is a time of peace right now duh, you were sent back in time by the crazy bitch Kaguya-

"Inner, is that you?"

-Of course it is me you idiot, who else can get into your head like this and talk to you-

"Ino can, or will be able to."

-But not yet and I am much better than her anyway and you know it-

"This is going to be hard."

-You mean exciting, think of all the possibilities! You have your knowledge, your seal plus the one that rabbit gave you, your monstrous strength! This will be a piece of cake. I know you can do this, besides, you won't have to waste time re learning everything, you can learn new stuff, it is like Orochimaru in a way-

"What does he have to do with being sent back in time?"

-Uh duh, you have more time to learn more powerful jutsu, to perfect the ones you started to learn before the whole, oh I don't know, the world went to war?-

"I didn't think of it like that I guess, it hasn't had time to sink in."

-Well no time like the present ...or past-

"You're a real comedian you know that? I never knew I was so funny."

-You aren't, I am-

In Sakura's mind's eye she could see Inner almost laughing at her and slapping her knee as she doubles over...she probably was.

Sakura walked up to the Academy building where parents and children were milling about talking and laughing. She saw Ino and waved to her. It was going to take some getting used to. Ino ran up to her, her dad trailing behind her at a leisurely pace.

"Sakura. Your hair! It looks really good, what made you put it up like that? I thought you didn't like showing off your forehead or your neck?" Ino was smiling proudly at her.

"Oh um, well I don't know I just felt like it? Seemed more appropriate now that we will be learning to be a ninja." Sakura tried to smile shyly but it came out as a grimace.

Ino must have taken her look to mean Sakura was still a bit self conscious of the way she looked because she took her by the hands and said, "I think you look beautiful, I love the black shirt it really brings out the color of your hair."

It was really nice seeing Ino like this again Sakura thought, this time, we will stay friends, no boy will get in the way of our friendship. That will be change number one. She smiled at Ino.

"You're a really good friend Ino, thank you for everything you have done for me." Sakura hugged her hard.

"Whoa Forehead, you okay?" Ino hugs her back and laughs.

Parents start to say goodbye and wave to their kids as they enter the building.

"Let's go Sakura!" Ino pulls her by her hand into the building while waving with her other hand to her dad.

Ino tries to drag Sakura into the middle of the class but Sakura holds back, she thinks it is a better idea for her to sit in the back this time around.

"I would prefer to sit in the back Ino, if that's ok, but you feel free to sit up there?" Sakura smiles at her and takes a seat in the far back corner of the room.

"What's up with you, you're talking funny, why would you want to sit in the back? Is this a self conscious thing Forehead?" Ino pouts.

"No, nothing like that, I just prefer to stay back and watch, it helps me learn if there are less distractions." Sakura offers by way of an excuse. She is trying to sit out of the way to draw less attention to herself.

"Fine, have it your way Forehead." Ino turns and runs smack into Sasuke Uchiha. "Hi Sasuke," Ino batts her eyes at him." Want to come sit with me in the middle, we can sit next to each other." Ino tries to take his hand but he draws it away and points to the seat Sakura is sitting in.

"I wanted to sit there." He gave Sakura an expectant look, like she will move just because he tells her he wants to sit there.

Damn Uchihas, she thinks. This is the second thing that will change.

"I was here first, sit somewhere else." She raises an eyebrow at him and doesn't break eye contact.

"Sakura! Did you just, tell Sasuke off?" Ino is in shock, her mouth hanging open. What was Sakura thinking, telling off the hottest guy in the academy, she wanted her to be more confident but not a bitch. Still, a little part of 7 year old Ino couldn't help but smile at her friends newfound audacity.

Sasuke stares at Sakura. "Are you going to move or not."

"Did I stutter?" Sakura gives him a dirty look.

Sasuke smiles. "No, you didn't." and takes the seat next to her.

Ino's mouth won't seem to shut, it keeps falling back open. She walks down the stairs to the middle of the class and sits down by Shikamaru Nara. Ino turns back to look at her friend. Sasuke and Sakura are purposely looking in opposite directions like they hate each other. What the hell is going on, and what happened to her shy timid best friend.

Iruka walks into the room and the students quiet down. He introduces himself and welcomes them to the academy. While he is giving his long speech of introduction Sakura looks around the room. Everyone looks so young, is so familiar yet so different from when she last saw them. She sees some faces that are no longer alive in her time, she sees the youth and innocence of a past that no longer exists in the hard ruined faces of the future.

A slight nudge brings her from her thoughts. She looks down at her arm, Sasuke is nudging her. She looks up at his face in inquiry. He motions with his head to the front of the room where Iruka is looking at her pointedly.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Iruka frowns at her.

"Oh, yes Sensei, I'm sorry, my mind must have wandered. Did you um ask something?" She stammered.

"I called your name for attendance, please pay closer attention or you will fall behind in lessons. When you are here in the classroom, so should your mind be." He told her and a few other students laughed.

"Yes Sensei." She said and shrugged.

Sasuke chuckled beside her.

She looked over at him and he pretended to look somewhere else but she could swear she had seen a glimpse of a smile on his lips before he turned his head from her.

After attendance Iruka hands out a test booklet, a beginning test to find out how much they know. He explains that it is like a preliminary test to establish their class ranking so he can arrange his lessons accordingly. Sakura looks down at her test. What should she do? Does she answer them all correctly or get some wrong to act normal. She recalls she only got 4 wrong out of 50 her first time around, so it shouldn't be too different if she just gets them all correct.

-Besides, you want to learn more things, maybe if they think you are a genius they will teach you more. Remember how Kakashi never taught you anything, he spent all his time with Naruto and the Uchiha because they were more talented than you?-

Inner had a good point. Sakura started the test determined to ace it, which was kinda a no brainer at this level in her life but to go above and beyond on the written portion explaining what she knew about Jutsus and the differences between Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.

She flipped her test booklet over and noticed that Sasuke did the same a few moments later. They shared a small curious look and she noticed they were the only ones finished so quickly. Had Sasuke always finished his tests so quickly? She couldn't recall. She knew he aced every test but didn't know he did it with such speed.

Iruka had noticed they were both done and with a small look of surprise came and gathered their booklets from them. He went back to his desk to grade them, starting with Sasuke's. She watched him grade the test and noticed Sasuke was watching him too. Iruka nodded his head and smiled periodically while grading Sasuke's test. He made a mark at the bottom of the last page then picked up Sakura's test while the other students diligently finished theirs.

Iruka smiled and nodded just as he had done with Sasuke's but when he got to the written part of the test he read with the sheet closer to his face an odd expression in his eyes. He stopped and set the paper down and looked up at Sakura. Sakura froze. She could see Sasuke next to her giving her a curious look but she ignored it. Iruka shook his head and picked her paper up again. He made some small notes in the margins as he wrote looking up at her now and again. When he finished he set the paper aside, gave her one last look and picked up the other tests from those who had finished by now.

Sakura could tell Sasuke was still staring at her so she turned her head to ask him what he wanted but he turned away. She sighed and put her head down on the table, her arms folded underneath. She had been resting her head on her arms for less than a minute when she felt a small tap on the back of her neck. She turned her head in her arms to look at Sasuke. He drew his hand away and blushed. Sasuke was blushing at her? She smiled at him.

"What?" She sat up now looking at him.

"What is that, on your neck, on the back?" He motioned to the back of his own neck behind his head.

Oh shit, she had forgotten.

-Way to go moron, way to blend in. Sit next to the ever curious, ever observant Uchiha-

"It's um, a seal. I forgot it was there when I put my hair up." She ripped the ribbon from her hair and her hair fell down in sheets around her face and down her back.

Sasuke watched with little hidden fascination.

"What kind of a seal is it?" Sasuke asked her in a quiet tone. He knew a lot of the elite clans used seals on their children but he knew Sakura's parents were civilians, why would she have a seal?

"Um, It's new. I haven't figured it out yet." She wasn't lying but it wasn't the full truth and she knew him well enough to know 7 years old or not, he knew she was lying, kinda.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me." He paused for a moment. "I liked your hair up but you look nice with it down too." He blushed again.

Wow, this Sasuke was so different than the one she had known. Sure she had been obsessed with him all through her academy days but she never really got to know him. She realized as she got older it was an infatuation and eventually fell out of love with him. She loved him, but it wasn't a romantic kind of love, it was family love, friendship love. He was innocent now.

-He is 7 years old and his older brother hasn't been forced into killing his entire clan yet remember, of course, he is innocent, he isn't damaged goods yet-

I'm going to stop the Uchiha massacre, Sakura said to herself, I want this Sasuke, I want him to be happy. He and Itachi deserve that. Wait, the massacre happens soon after Sasuke starts the academy, when he is 7 years old. It obviously didn't happened yet. She had to find out when she would need to investigate. She liked this sweet blushing Sasuke. She would start looking into it right after school.


	3. Chapter 3

...Sakura picked up her new books that had been handed out to them and made her way slowly to the door of the classroom. She waited and let the other kids out before her so she wouldn't get poked and prodded out the door. Sasuke was still there to her surprise. He seemed to be taking a long time writing his name on the cover of his books and she wondered what the hell he was doing but he also seemed to be trying hard to ignore her. She didn't care, she needed to drop these books off at home and start her recon of the Uchiha district compound. Wait maybe Sasuke could help her with that.

Ino came bounding up the stairs at her smiling the whole way.

"Come on Forehead let's go get some Dango to celebrate our first day." Ino was eyeing Sasuke who was still there for some reason. "Want to come Sasuke?"

"Ok," Sasuke said to both of their surprises.

"You want to come to get Dango with us?" Sakura asked clearly surprised.

"You don't want me to?" Sasuke asked her.

"No, you can I was just surprised is all." She said.

"Well come on let's go!" Ino was dragging Sasuke out the door by the arm as he looked back at Sakura.

"Sakura, may I speak with you for a moment?" Iruka was standing at his desk in the front of the room.

"Yes, Sensei." Sakura turned to Ino and Sasuke, "You two go, I'll meet up with you later." and she walked to the front of the class. Ino dragged Sasuke out of the room with a mad grin on her face.

"Sakura, I wanted to talk to you about the written part of your test. You went into great detail about Jutsu and I wondered where your knowledge came from. Your parents are civilians I know and I found it rather odd you would know so much about the Shinobi world at such a young age and just entering the academy." Iruka looked at her expectantly.

"I never would have pegged you to be biased Sensei," Sakura said without thinking.

-You just met him, idiot, remember?-

"Uh, I'm not, it just struck me as odd." He said a little offended. "Where did your in-depth knowledge come from Sakura?"

"I read a lot." She shrugged.

"Well, I was really impressed. I look forward to having you in my class Sakura, thanks for staying, see you tomorrow." He waved her out the door.

-You need to be more careful for this to work, you can't be found out. It will cause us too many problems and might even get us in trouble, this is a new beginning for a lot of us, you can make changes that will benefit everyone, don't screw it up because you don't think before you talk!-

Inner was right Sakura thought as she pushed the outer door to the academy open. She needed to start thinking before she spoke. She needed to figure out the date of the massacre, damn why was she so stupid and oblivious when she was a kid.

Sakura was still trying to figure out the date when she walked through the academy door and out into the courtyard only to run into Sasuke Uchiha.

"You need to stop getting lost in your head Sakura." He smiled at her.

"Where is Ino? I thought you went to go get Dango with her?" Sakura looked around but didn't see Ino anywhere.

"I told her I didn't want to go without you, I came back here to wait for you." He told her.

Wow, again, this Sasuke was so different than the one she knew, it was almost scary.

"I bet she loved that." Sakura laughed and he smiled at her again.

"No, she didn't but um my mom makes really good Dango and she probably made some for my first day at the academy. I don't really like it that much, but do you want to come back home with me to have some?' He said in a rush to her blushing.

Sakura needed information on the Uchiha, there was no better way than to do it by going to the Uchiha compound with an Uchiha right?

"I would like that Sasuke, thank you." She smiled at him and flattened the bangs over her eyes making sure her seal on her forehead was hidden.

"I can carry your books for you, um, if you want?" Sasuke took her books out of her arms and she let him.

"Thank you, Sasuke." She smiled and they set off together for the Uchiha compound.

"Hey Sasuke, got yourself a little girlfriend on the first day at the academy, huh?" 16-year-old Shisui Uchiha dropped out of a tree in front of them as they neared the Uchiha compound grinning at them like a Cheshire cat.

"Shut up, she isn't my girlfriend, just a friend." Sasuke glared at him looking more like the Sasuke Sakura remembered from her time.

"Oh, why are you carrying her books for her then hum?" Shisui stepped forward quickly and ruffled Sasuke's hair then turned to look at Sakura and paused.

Shisui's Sharingan activated as he looked at her and she moved into a fighting stance. Sasuke threw himself in front of her blocking her from Shisui's eyes.

"What are you doing? She is my friend!" He yelled at Shisui.

Shisui's eyes faded from red back to their normal color. "Sorry." Shisui laughed, "For a minute there your chakra spiked but I must be mistaken, your too cute and little to be able to do that right?" He gave Sakura a funny look but started grinning again.

"Whatever, we're going to see if mom made any Dango, I told Sakura she could have some." and they left Shisui standing by the gates of the Uchiha compound scratching the back of his neck.

Itachi fell down from the tree beside him. "She knew we were both here. Her chakra did flare. She is 7 years old?"

"Looks like you have some competition for genius of Konoha now." Shisui clapped him on the back and smiled. "Looks like little Sasuke found a little girlfriend huh?"

"Hn," Itachi said as he watched Sakura and Sasuke walk down the main street of their compound to their house.

"Let's go get some Dango," Shisui said and started to follow them, Itachi moving up beside him. Itachi liked Dango.

Sakura wanted to hit herself in the forehead. She had sensed them there and thought she was prepared but when Shisui had jumped down in front of her and reached for Sasuke she had panicked. Old habits die hard and she forgot for that moment she wasn't on the 4th Shinobi war front lines again.

She had reacted by reflex, and she knew they both saw it, all three of them. Itachi had stayed in the tree watching her. She wondered why. She had never met Shisui Uchiha, he had died before she had enough sense to look at the world around her. She had met Itachi, but only once at the academy when he came to pick Sasuke up from school.

Sasuke watched her out of the corner of his eye. When Shisui had jumped down from the tree she had flared her chakra and immediately fell into a fighting stance, like a seasoned shinobi. Why had he never noticed her before, were her parents really civilians? He wanted to learn more about his new friend, she fascinated him.

Sasuke slid the door to his home open for Sakura and let her step in first.

"Tadima." He said.

She took off her shoes and put them in the provided cubby holes by the door. Sasuke had just finished removing his shoes when his mother came around the corner of the hall to greet him.

"Okaeri," His mother said and smiled when she saw Sakura. "Hello there, and who might you be?"

"Haruno Sakura, I am pleased to meet you, please think well of me." Sakura bowed low but did not break eye contact.

"I am pleased to meet you Sakura, please come in, do you like Dango? I made some for Sasuke's first day at the academy." She led Sasuke into the tea room. "I will put on some tea, Sasuke, please make your friend comfortable."

"Thank you for inviting me over Sasuke, you have a beautiful home and your mother is very kind," Sakura said politely. She remembered how formal Sasuke used to be and thought it must be due to his elite Uchiha upbringing. She did not wish to embarrass herself with poor manners.

"It's nothing. So, how did you finish your test so quickly?" He asked her without pretense.

"You finished right after me, how did you finish yours so quickly?" She shot back at him annoyed.

"I am an Uchiha, you are civilian born." He said as if that explained everything.

"Why, you arrogant little." Sakura started to say but was interrupted by Shisui who appeared in the garden facing the open tea room.

"Wow, Sasuke, way to woo a girl, insults, and Dango. Good job buddy." Shisui was grinning...again.

"I wasn't wooing her." Sasuke huffed. "I just thought it odd she finished the test before me is all and Iruka's eyes kept getting wider and wider as he read her test, and then he kept her after class to talk to her." He defended himself.

"Did he?" Itachi said beside her. She hadn't even seen him come in.

She had reacted by reflex again and was up and across the room in a fighting stance before he had blinked.

"So fast for a new academy student," Shisui observed her.

Sasuke's mouth hung open as he stared at her.

Itachi was looking at her with a very calculating look in his eye.

"She is almost as fast as you Itachi, what are you 11 years old now? She isn't that far behind you, amazing." Shisui sat down by the tea table and grabbed a stick of Dango.

"I didn't know there was such talent joining the academy this year, and you come from a civilian home?" Itachi asked her.

Sakura had relaxed into a normal standing position but she hadn't come back to sit at the table yet.

"Yes." She answered him.

Mikoto came back into the room with a tea tray then and set it down on the table. She had brought an extra plate of Dango as well.

"Shisui, Itachi, I felt your chakra signatures dears and brought extra for you. Isn't it nice, Sasuke made a new little friend and brought her for tea." Mikoto smiled at everyone.

"Yes, an interesting little friend." Itachi was still looking at her.

Sasuke didn't seem to like this so he got up and pulled Sakura over to the table to sit by him and poured her tea for her while glaring at his brother.

Sakura's mouth dropped open, Sasuke had poured her tea for her! She blushed.

Mikoto went on to ask about their first day, complimenting Sasuke and Sakura on their test grades and telling Sakura she was welcome back anytime. Sakura had thanked her and complimented her Dango blushing prettily and left amongst many smiles and earnest looks from Sasuke who had offered to walk her home but she told him she had to stop somewhere else on the way and that it wasn't necessary.

Some hours later Sakura found herself alone outside the gates of Konoha by the forest river. She sat with her knees drawn up thinking, her arms wrapped around her knees with her head resting on top. She had spent the last few hours trying to walk around the perimeter of the Uchiha compound but had been noticed by that damned Itachi who seemed to be following her so she left.

There was a faint chakra signature moving her way, it was familiar but also distorted. She tried to reach out to her senses but she couldn't quite place it. She stood and looked up, there was someone at the top of the cliff that shot up from the river where she was now. She jumped up the side of the cliff using her chakra and then suppressed it as she watched from a far off tree.

Was that Danzo Shimura? Hate began to swell in her chest, that fiend, that jerk and his warped sense of righteousness. She crept closer keeping her killing intent under control.

Shisui popped into existence in front of Danzo. Wow, she thought, she had never seen the technique except by the Yondaime and the Nidaime at the end of the war and hadn't had time to admire it then. To see Shisui do it was amazing. She listened with chakra enhanced ears to them argue. It seemed that Danzo didn't think Shisui could do…. Oh no, this was it, this was when….

She pushed chakra into her feet and flew to Danzo chakra forming to a sharpened point as she moved. He turned as she rocketed into him from behind and thrust her chakra sharpened fingers point first through his chest and killed him. In her rage, she forgot about her age, forgot about how she was supposed to be a secret. Lifting her leg, she kicked the lifeless body of Danzo Shimura from her arm and flung the blood and mass from her fingers.

Shisui stared at her.

She stared back at him.

"Who are you?' Itachi spoke from behind her.

She turned sideways, keeping both Uchiha insight and took two steps back, "I am Haruno Sakura. He was the cancer of Konoha, filling your clan with lies and pitting them against the village. I did this for Konoha, and the Uchiha of Konoha"

She prayed they would understand or assume she was some elite assassin sent to take care of Danzo, age notwithstanding. They knew they had planned to divert the coup, to use Shisui's Kotoamatsukami to right the views of the clan, to create peace.

"He was going to take your eyes. The eyes with the Kotoamatsukami, use them now to do what you intended" She said to Shisui.

"How did you know that, who do you work for." He asked her. He wasn't hostile he didn't seem angry or suspicious but he was definitely curious.

-Who wouldn't be?-

"I serve Konoha, always. I know because I was told." She said looking from 11-year-old Itachi to 16-year-old Shisui. "I am who I say."

Itachi nodded. He himself had just joined Anbu. He thought he was the youngest member to join, even younger than Kakashi Hatake at age 13, but apparently, he was wrong?

Sakura nodded to them, "Thank you for your understanding and please do not tell anyone." She took a risk, she knew not all Anbu knew one another."You understand." She nodded to Itachi and leaped to the trees, flying through the forest and away from them.

"Well, Sasuke sure knows how to pick a girlfriend doesn't he?" Shisui laughed.

"I want to know more about her." Itachi looks down at the body of Danzo Shimura. "The way she killed him, I have only seen Kakashi Hatake kill like that. It wasn't the Chidori though."

"Well, whatever it was we need to get rid of this body." Shisui kicked Danzo's lifeless body and grinned at Itachi.


	4. Chapter 4

...Sakura falls onto her bed tired.

-Well that was an eventful first day, still, you messed one thing up-

"What's that?"

-Itachi never saw Shisui die so um duh, he doesn't have the Mangekyo Sharingan now-

"Shit. Well, it's not like I was going to let Shisui die."

-I know but what if it changes things-

"Aren't we here to change things?"

-Yeah but what if by Itachi not having that power makes something else happen, something bad-

"Well I can't change it, it is done, maybe he will still get it."

-What about Obito? He is still out there somewhere, remember he was the one who helped Itachi kill his clan, and now Itachi won't be doing that.-

Inner had a good point. Where was Obito? Would he just go back to forming and collecting Akatsuki members? Was there an Akatsuki now? If there was they were down one Uchiha.

"I don't know, I will have to figure it out later, I have no clue where Obito is. I will have to wait and see if anything comes of it. I don't really have a choice, I have a limited viewpoint of everything remember?"

Sakura sighed into her pillow and never noticed the red eyes watching her from the roof of the house across the street.

The next morning…...

"SSSAAAAKKKKUUUUURRRRRAAAAAA! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR SCHOOLLLL DEARR!" her mom yelled up the stairs to her.

Sakura fell out of bed and threw on black shorts, black wrap around top with a dark blue tie around her waist and a dark blue ribbon to tie back her hair. She used a mild genjutsu to hide her seals on her forehead and the back of her neck then jumped out her window.

"Hey, Forehead! Heard you went to Sasuke's house for Dango yesterday without me." Ino was standing with her hand on her hip glaring at Sakura.

"I asked him where you were, he said he didn't know. He asked me over so I went. No big deal Ino." Sakura didn't have time for this.

Ino gave her a piercing look. "Don't act like it wasn't a big deal Forehead, the hottest guy in school asks you out and you are trying to tell me it wasn't a big deal?"

"Look Ino, I know you're jealous but I don't like Sasuke like that okay? We are just friends, he is a nice guy. I won't stand in your way, go for it.' Sakura smiled, she really wanted her and Ino to be friends again this time around.

"Really?" Ino asked not completely believing anyone in their right mind wouldn't want the Uchiha.

"Really, Ino." Sakura smiled again. "Come on, let's get inside, and today let's eat lunch together okay?" Sakura started walking to the door.

When they got inside their classroom Sasuke was there in his seat and he looked up as Sakura sat down.

"Morning Sakura." He greeted her.

"Morning Sasuke." She said and sat down.

"You wear a lot of black." He commented.

"I like black, I used to wear a lot of red but I don't know, I want to wear darker colors now." She shrugged. After the 4th Shinobi war, darker colors made her feel better, like they could hide the blood on her hands, the loss.

"It makes the color of your eyes and hair stand out." He blushed then hurried to say, "It looks nice." in case he had offended her.

She didn't know what to think of this new Sasuke, it kinda confused her but she really liked it. "Thank you."

Iruka brought the class to order then and they started learning about the nature of chakra and how to control the chakra they had in their bodies presently. A lot of it was a review of course and common sense but she listened for anything she may have missed before. She wasn't so arrogant as to think there was nothing more she could learn or that there wasn't anything she couldn't learn for the first time by going to class in her past.

After reading the sections about chakra control in their books they went out to the academy training grounds for kunai practice. They lined up into three rows about ten kids a row. The targets were set up about 20 feet away. Not far. The aim was to get one out of three in the second to the center area in yellow, anything outside of the yellow didn't count. If you didn't get any of your kunai in the yellow, you had to stay after class for more practice.

Sasuke lined up in a row next to Sakura, Ino was behind Sakura. Just as they were about to start a loud noise rang out over the training field.

"Yeah! Believe it!" An orange ball of energy was racing back and forth dodging Chunin who were trying to catch him.

"Naruto?" Sakura said out loud.

Iruka cast her a surprised look. "You know him?" He asked her.

"I have seen him around." She said.

"He's late, he was supposed to start with the rest of you yesterday," Iruka told her as two Chunin tackled Naruto and dragged him over to the class.

"Now stay put you little shit." a Chunin with wrapper tape over his nose said to Naruto giving him an angry look.

"Yeah yeah get off." Naruto scowled but his face lit up when he saw Sakura looking at him. He jumped to her side. "Hey,my name is Naruto, what's yours?"

"Um, Sakura." She smiled at him.

Naruto's heart skipped a beat. She had smiled at him! A girl smiled at him! No one ever smiled at him. He knew right then and there that he was in love.

"Hey wanna be my girlfriend?" Naruto asked her taking her by the hand and kissing it. "Oooff!" He was knocked to the ground, Sasuke standing over him.

"Leave her alone," Sasuke said to him in a low voice.

"Easy easy guys," Iruka called to them.

"It's okay Sasuke he didn't mean anything by it." Sakura tried to intervene.

"He shouldn't touch you or kiss you like that, it is bad manners." Sasuke huffed. And looked away.

"I was just being friendly, believe it!" Naruto is back on his feet smiling at Sakura again.

Sakura smiles back and then turns away.

"Okay okay let's get started, Naruto get in line, we are doing kunai practice," Iruka says.

Naruto gets in line behind Sakura, earning him a punch from Ino who pushes him behind her.

Sakura, Sasuke, and Kiba step up to the line to throw their kunai. Sakura waits for a minute, she doesn't remember how good everyone is and she didn't want to be too far out of place. Thoughts of the test yesterday play through her head, oh yeah. She throws before Kiba or Sasuke. All three kunai embedded in the middle dot of the center target.

"Uh, wow, ok good job Sakura, you can go sit down till the others are done." Iruka looks at her with wide eyes.

Sasuke's mouth is open and he shuts it with a snap.

"Holy crap."

"Did you see that?"

"That is absolutely amazing Sakura!" Naruto's voice is the loudest.

"Whoa."

"Who is she again?"

"Dang Forehead." Ino looks at her in aww. Seriously where was her timid friend now?

The voices whisper their surprise all around her as she goes to sit down on a bench behind the rows of other students.

-Uh overkill girl-

Red eyes disappear from a nearby tree.

Lunch time came and the children all file out of their classes to sit on the grass outside the building but inside the school gates. Sakura took her bento out and opened the lid next to Ino as a shadow fell across them. Sakura looked up to see Naruto standing over her smiling like a moron.

"Sakura can I join you for lunch?" He grins and sits down before she even answers.

"Sure Naruto." She smiles at him.

"Really?" His eyes go wide and he smiles and hugs her, he finally has a friend!

"Hey! I told you not to touch her!" Sasuke is behind them scowling.

"Wow Forehead, when did you get so popular?" Ino is giving her a strange look.

"I didn't ask for this, I just wanted to eat lunch with my best friend." She smiled at Ino.

"I'll eat with you too then." Sasuke sits down beside Sakura and opens the lid to his bento.

They start to eat when Sakura notices Naruto doesn't have a lunch.

"Naruto? Where is your lunch?" She asks him

"Oh uh, I don't eat lunch, I eat when I get home." He frowns for a minute then smiles brightly at her. "I prefer it this way, ya know?"

Sasuke rolls his eyes and Ino scoffs.

"Who wouldn't want to eat at lunch time, you're such a loser.' Ino says arrogantly to Naruto and he looks almost hurt but smiles at her.

"That's me, I don't want to eat lunch." He grins a fake grin and it breaks Sakura's heart. Poor Naruto. He doesn't have parents to make him a bento, he probably doesn't eat because he doesn't have anyone to look after him. How come she never noticed any of this before, she was so ashamed.

"Here." Sakura sets her bento and chopsticks in front of Naruto.

"What?' Naruto said confused. "You're giving me your lunch?" He blushes.

"I ate a big breakfast. I'm not hungry." She says. "Eat it."

"Th thank you Sakura. You're really nice." Naruto bows and takes the bento with two hands from her and starts to shovel the food into his mouth. Just like she thought, he was starving.

Red eyes watched her from the top of the academy.

After lunch they read more on chakra control, it's uses and how to replenish your levels through a good diet and rest. Soon the bell rang and all the kids hopped out of their seats and ran out the door. All save four. Ino came to stand by Sakura as she got her books together. Sasuke was taking a long time to leave again folding papers into a folder, and Naruto bounded over several tables to get to her.

"Sakura! Want to go train together and practice our chakra contorts?" He smiled at her widely.

"Chakra control idiot," Sasuke says scoffing at him for the 6th time that day.

"Too bad boys, we have a date with Dango, to make up for yesterday." She glares at Sasuke who shrugs.

Sakura smiles and waves, "See you tomorrow." Her and Ino giggle and walk out of the room.

They are still laughing with one another as they exit the main door to the academy to find Shisui Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha waiting by the swing for Sasuke.

"Haruno San." Itachi greets her.

"Sakura Chan!" Shisui greets her with a big hug and ruffles her hair as he sets her back down.

"Uh, hi guys." She gets out as Ino's mouth opens and closes like a fish. Next to her.

"Don't hug her like that Shisui!' Sasuke runs out the front door to stand between Sakura and Shisui.

"Relax kid, I was just saying hello to your girlfriend." Shisui teased him and Ino stiffened by Sakura's side.

Aww crap Sakura thought and promptly said loudly, "I am NOT his girlfriend."

She felt Ino relax beside her.

"Okay okay sheesh you guys are so serious." Shisui laughs at them.

"Ready Sasuke?" Itachi asks.

"Um yeah, see you Sakura, let me know if you want to train after your get Dango with Ino okay? Come by the compound if you do." He waves and leaves with Itachi.

Shisui smiles at Sakura and winks at her before leaving.

"Oh, my gosh Forehead spill!" Ino is grinning like she is a cat with cream.

"How the hell do you know three of the hottest Uchiha in history!" Ino is dancing where she stands.

"The hottest Uchiha in history is Madara Uchiha." It was out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

Ino's jaw dropped.

"I met them when I went to his house for Dango yesterday." Sakura told her. "It really isn't a big deal Ino, you should come with me next time."

"Isn't a big deal? I don't understand you Forehead." Ino shakes her head and smiles. "No wonder you aren't interested in Sasuke with men like that around."

"Ino, we are 7 years old, kick it down a notch, it's creepy." Sakura says. Has she always been like this Sakura wonders.

Red eyes flash in the afternoon sun.

Sakura never went to find Sasuke to spar after Dango. Instead, she went for a walk in the forest outside of training ground 5 where Team 7 used to train. She found a good spot by one of the biggest trees she had ever seen, a tree that her old Sensei used to love reading in when they were Genin. It was exhausting in a way, trying to separate and yet combine both of her lives at the same time. Mentally. That was the word she was looking for. It was mentally exhausting.

She leaned her back up against the tree. She was restless and found she couldn't sit still. Sighing, she got to her feet and raced up the side of the next tree over using the method she had first learned from Kakashi all those years ago, then snapped her head back and flipped off the tree over and over till she hit the ground with minimal chakra to absorb the impact leaving a tiny little crater. Sakura sighed again and walked back toward the training grounds and home.

He felt her chakra fading...her immense chakra, well, immense for a 7 year old. Kakashi hopped down from his favorite tree and inspected the crater. Hum, he rubbed his chin. Another genius? Another Itachi? Kakashi thought Itachi was impressive, and he was, but so was she. Who was she? He walked around the crater a few more times and then glanced up the trunk of the tree she had ran up and flipped off of. He bit his thumb and slammed it to the ground.

"Hey, boss." Pakkun greeted him.

"Pick up the female scent on this tree and follow her. I want to learn more about her." Kakashi told Pakkun.

"New love interest?" Pakkun teased.

"She is 7 years old, hardly." Kakashi glared at the ninja hound and Pakkun took off.


	5. Chapter 5

...Two years later…

Sakura handed Naruto his bento she made him.

"Thanks, Kura." Naruto smiles at her and she smiles back.

"Bring me back the other bento box from yesterday ok? Washed!" She tells him.

"Sorry, I forgot, I will I promise." He smiles. The last two years have been the happiest Naruto has ever had. He had friends. Some were closer than others but still, he had Sakura, Sasuke, and Ino as friends. He was so thankful for it, he loved them so much.

They sat down to eat their lunch as they did together every day at the academy. Sasuke sat by Sakura and Naruto sat on the other side. Ino came up then with her bento and sat down groaning.

"What's wrong Ino," Naruto asked her.

"My extra classes for my mind control are starting to get to me. I'm tired all the time!" She gave Sakura puppy dog eyes.

"Come here Pig." Sakura smiled at her and green chakra pulsed over her hands as she placed them on Ino's temples.

Ino let a sigh of contentment leave her and she smiled at her best friend. "Will you ever tell us where you learned how to do that Forehead?" Ino complained, not for the first time.

"No." Sakura smiled at her, not for the first time.

"Just keep my secrets, I don't use it for anyone else." Sakura reminded them and they all nodded sagely.

It had been almost a year ago, Naruto had fallen out of a tree and broke his arm. Sasuke and they had been training when he did it and she hadn't thought but reacted and healed his arm. They were so surprised no one spoke for almost an hour. When they did, Naruto was so loud she had to use a chakra hand to clam over his mouth which made his eyes grow even larger. She explained to them a half truth, that she had imese chakra reserves and perfect chakra control.

She told them that she had been training on her own privately before she had enrolled at the academy from scrolls. Naruto had clapped his hands and Sasuke had sat there nodding wisely pretending he understood. Not wanting to leave Ino out and feeling guilty, Sakura swore her to secrecy and told her the same story as Naruto and Sasuke. It was nice to be able to relax a little around her friends.

After lunch it was shuriken practice. Sakura and Sasuke were the best in the class and got to go first so they could do as they wished, while the others practiced more.

"My mom wanted me to invite you for dinner this Friday, can you come?" Sasuke asked her as they sat together on the bench.

"Yeah, I will be there, I love your mom's cooking." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

Sakura had been going periodically to the Uchiha compound since their first day at the academy two years ago. Sasuke invited her almost once a month after school and they had become good friends. Sometimes Naruto was invited too but not as often. He annoyed Fugaku, Sasuke's dad.

Sakura and Sasuke had started to take advanced classes with Iruka on Wednesdays but they were a bore to her. Sasuke liked them and wanted her to keep going but she wanted to be training on her own. She went for Sasuke though, she was glad to see him so happy.

Naruto would hop through her window at all hours of the night or any time of the day and it annoyed her to no end but like with Sasuke, she was happy to see him so happy. Having watched Ino, Sakura and Sasuke eat lunch and play with Naruto the other kids started to come around a little at a time and talked to him more instead of shunning him. By and large, that hadn't changed too much but at least most of his classmates tolerated him now.

Thursday night was Ichiraku night with Naruto. They would meet at her house and walk to the market together and eat at the ramen bar. Naruto always called it a date but she reminded him they were only 9 and it wasn't a date because that was creepy. He was happy he had a regular friend to eat with so he didn't mind.

Sometimes Sasuke and Naruto would come to her house for dinner. Naruto more than Sasuke but her parents didn't mind, they knew he was an orphan and respected their daughter's, big heart. Ino came and went as a regular just as Sakura did at her home. Sakura had to admit, life was good, she was very happy.

Inner constantly reminded her that they had to improve their skills still and concentrate on learning new jutsu, but to be honest, Sakura was just happy for this small break, no war, no crazed maniacal Uchiha trying to kill everyone she loved to take over the world. It was nice but Inner was right she did need to improve her skills.

With that thought in mind, Sakura walked up the steps to the library. Before the war, she had started her research into the 2nd Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique and his formulas that made it possible to go from point A to point B in less than a second, no matter the distance. She had only managed to do it once, she planned on perfecting it and to do that she needed to research a bit more and try again.

Crouching down to peer at the bottom shelf she heard them before she saw them and sensed them before she heard them. She masked her chakra signature and kept looking for the books she wanted. Itachi Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake walked into the next aisle over from Sakura.

"Doesn't she have dinner at your house once a month?" Kakashi asked Itachi.

"She comes for my little brother, they are friends from the academy," Itachi replied

"Have you seen them spar?" Kakashi asked.

"I have, she holds back. Sasuke can not tell but it is obvious." Itachi spoke quietly.

"I have put in an inquiry to test her skills, I need to know more about her. She might be a good candidate for Anbu." Kakashi informed him.

"She is only 9 years old Kakashi, I do not think that is wise," Itachi argued.

"Only two years younger than you, and she has 5 times as much chakra as you did then," Kakashi said and walked away.

Itachi didn't move even though Kakashi had gone. "I know you're there Sakura." He said as he made his way into her isle and she stood to meet him.

"Kakashi didn't." She said.

"No, he is not a sensor nin like me, like Shisui and like you." Itachi inclined his head gracefully.

"He was referring to me wasn't he?" She asked Itachi.

"Yes." He admitted.

"This test of skill, what does it entail?" She asked him.

"It is different for everyone." He looked at her. "I think for you he will want your chakra reserves tested, and he will want to know what your seals do." He touched his forehead and the back of his neck. "You can not hide those with such a weak genjutsu from an Uchiha. He smiled at her.

"That was never my intention, I knew most of your clan would be able to see them." She shrugged. 'When will I be tested and by who do you know?"

"I do not know when but by Kakashi, be careful, he will want to push you to the limit and he is not...gentle about it. I don't know how you got on his radar but, I could guess." and he poofed away leaving only a few small spirals of smoke.

"Great." She sulked back to the section she was looking at previously.

-How the hell are we going to manage this one-

'Hell if I know." She said to herself.

Friday came and with it her dinner at the Uchihas'. Per usual dinner was delicious. Mikoto was an excellent cook and Sakura loved looking out of the tea room into their garden after dinner. She and Sasuke were sitting on the edge of the porch eating Dango when Shisui dropped down from the roof and swiped a stick off the plate much to Sasuke's annoyance. Sakura just laughed.

"Hello Love turds." Shisui smiled at them and ruffled Sasuke's hair.

"Shut up Shisui." Sasuke glared at him.

'Hey, Shisui mind if I ask you something about your body flicker technique?" Sakura asked him

"Not at all little blossoms go right ahead." He grinned.

"Do you use a formula like Minato and Tobirama did?" She couldn't remember if he had or not.

"Nope, I don't use a formula just me." He smiled at her then asked, "Why are you trying to learn it?"

Sasuke scoffed. "She is too young, not enough chakra, she can't possibly learn it."

Shisui gave him a pitying look and was about to reprimand him for being so rude when Sakura disappeared from the porch and stood a second later in the middle of the garden, then back to the porch.

"I have learned it, I only wished to confirm what I had guessed." She raised her eyebrow at Sasuke.

"With jutsu like that, you will have no issues passing the testing to come," Itachi spoke from the tea room door.

"Testing?' Shisui asked at the same time as Sasuke did.

"The dog," Itachi says to Shisui.

"Ah, I wondered if that would happen," Shisui replied glancing at Sakura.

"Good luck, he will not go easy on you," Shisui warned her.

"So I have been told." She replied.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Sasuke all but yelled.

"Nothing," Itachi said and walked out of the tea room.

"It's getting late Sasuke, I think I will get going okay?" She smiled.

"I'll walk you home." He said and they left.

Itachi walked back into the room and took the last stick of dango from the plate then walked back out.

The next morning found Sakura at the training grounds. Training ground 5 again. She had gotten up before dawn to try out her new Jutsu. With closed eyes, she concentrated her chakra focusing on her destination and flickered away to the village outside of Konoha, 20 miles away, then back to her first position and collapsed on the ground breathing hard.

"Shit." She wheezed out. That had taken almost all of her chakra. She released the seal on the back of her neck and black lines raced down her face and chest arms torso and legs. She focused her chakra and flickered then disappeared to a predetermined spot 30 miles away, and she flickered back. That was better, she was still out of breath but she didn't feel sick like last time.

That was the first time she had released that seal and wasn't sure of the effects or how much chakra it contained. It apparently had a lot. Sakura wondered if she would have any of the after-effects that she had with her own original seal as she collapsed to the ground and started to shiver and quake. She was shaking uncontrollably when Itachi touched down beside her lifting her up into his arms and flickering away.

She woke what seemed like moments later in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar bed, Itachi Uchiha sleeping in a chair by the bed. She tried to move her arm but couldn't. She looked down at it and sighed, useless. Using the seal apparently did have the same aftereffect as her original seal, she wouldn't be back to herself for a few days. Damn.

Itachi opened his eyes and sat up looking at her.

"We are at a small outbuilding on Uchiha land, Shisui and I come here a lot it is kinda our place, we come to train or to be alone. You may use it to recover if you like." He said to her.

"Um thank you Itachi, did you bring me here then?" How much had he seen?

"Yes, after you collapsed the second time I didn't think you were going to get back up like the first time." So, he had seen everything. Great.

"What was that? What did you do? I know it was the body flicker but it was 20 miles then 30 miles, how is that possible, how do you come by so much chakra.?" He was looking at her in what could only be considered awe for an Uchiha.

"Well, I hadn't done that before actually. Today was my first attempt, I wanted to see what would happen." It was the truth for the most part. She hadn't released the rabbit seal before and was testing her body flicker technique as well as it's boundaries.

"You can use the body flicker as well as Shisui, and he is the best. You are only 9, you will be incredible when you get older. I am impressed Sakura." Itachi really meant it. He was impressed.

"Could you um, could you please keep this secret for now? I don't want people to know." She had to go out on a limb here, she had to give him a valid reason why she wanted it to remain a secret. "Danzo is gone but Root remains."

Awareness flashed in his eyes, yes, he knew that some Root remained but it wasn't common knowledge, how did she know? "I will keep it a secret but you might want to make this request of Shisui too, he is in the other room." Itachi rose to go get Shisui she guessed.

She sighed as Shisui came into the room and sat in the chair Itachi had just vacated. "Hey, little enigma." He grinned at her. "How ya feeling, you look like shit." Itachi hit him over the head.

"What?' He grinned at his cousin.

"Thanks, um Itachi said he wouldn't tell anyone but will you?" She was watching him carefully.

"Not a soul but you know, we aren't the only ones who noticed your chakra outburst. Itachi is fast, faster than Kakashi. If he wasn't you would have a whole lotta questions to answer kiddo." He reached over and ruffled her hair smirking.

"He came?" She said quietly.

"Of course he did, you let lose a massive flux of chakra out of nowhere at dawn! He probably thought we were under attack. Don't do that again ." He laughed at her.

A crow landed on the window of the bedroom they were in and tapped its beak on the glass.

Itachi went to greet it and took the note from its neck and read it. He frowned and handed the note to Sakura.

I have withdrawn my testing request in regards to Haruno Sakura. Instead, I have put in a request for her to join the ranks of Anbu. - Hatake Kakashi Anbu Captain -

"Shit.' Sakura said and fell back onto the bed with her eyes closed.

Shisui and Itachi exchanged a worried look.

"Sakura, I don't presume to know what you want in life, but you don't belong in Anbu," Itachi said.

She stiffened. Did he not think she was good enough?

"It isn't that he doesn't think you aren't good enough flower. Anbu is a dark world. Look at Kakashi, he is lost in the darkness, all he lives for is death. We don't want that for you." Shisui was serious for once.

"Anbu is for life. I had to join, I did not want to." Itachi told her.

"I joined to keep him out of trouble." Shisui grinned at Itachi.

"I don't want to join, I see what it has done to Kakashi." She spoke softly. "I had never planned on joining Anbu.

"Technically we aren't allowed to talk about it but since you are being requested we can, and we won't tell anyone. You knew we were Anbu though, it didn't surprise you when we told you." Shisui looked into her eyes for a hint of unease...and he found it.

"Yes." She didn't elaborate.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is Kakashi will not let this go easily. He wants to reform his team and I think he has his eyes on Sakura now." Itachi said.

"We don't need another member, we are fine as a three man team," Shisui said.

"He won't let this go," Itachi said.

"She needs to eat, no use worrying about it now." Shisui turned to Sakura, "Hungry?"

"Yes. " she admitted.

"Okay, I'll go get us some food, be right back." He flickered away.

"Sakura." Itachi began but stopped when she looked up at him.

"Yes?" She asked him curious.

"You don't speak like a normal 9-year-old. You didn't speak like a normal 7-year-old either. Who is your master?" He asked her.

She hadn't been expecting that. "My master is." She started to say but stopped, how could she word this. " They are here but not themselves yet." It would have to do.

"Here but not themselves yet? They are alive but not as you know them?" He asked her.

Wow, Itachi was quick. "Yes."

"But that." He started to say but she cut him off.

"I can not answer the questions you wish to ask me Itachi, please, I do not want to tell you lies." He could respect that couldn't he?

"Hn." He nodded, then smiled. "Thank you."

She smiled back at him.

Shisui returned shortly after, with food, it was delicious. Sakura spent the next two days there, Itachi having stopped by her parent's house asking for their permission for Sakura to stay with them at the compound, not letting them know where she really was. Sakura gradually recovered and spent her time talking about different Jutsu with Shisui and about other genjutsu with Itachi.


	6. Chapter 6

Three years later….

"Earth Style, Earth Rampart Jutsu!" Sakura leaps into the air atop her raising mountain away from the mass of kunai bombs Itachi just threw her way.

"Nice one flower!" Shisui calls to her from the ground.

"Thanks!" She yells back to him then drops into a crouch drawing three kunai and jumping over the clone Itachi sent after her to throw her kunai across the murder of crows reining down upon her head.

"Not good enough." Itachi smiles and red eyes spin, she shuts her eyes and whirls to focus the air around her into chakra drawing water from the atmosphere and turning them to bullets compressed by her insane level of chakra and hurtles them at Itachi.

"Argh." Itachi falls and spins kicking up to avoid her fist coming down on him, he rolls, the ground breaks apart as her chakra filled fist hit the earth and they both go careening down the side of the mountain and lay spread eagle at the bottom.

"Hello there my flower, have a good time did we?" Shisui grins and lifts her up over his head spinning her.

"Put her down, you look ridiculous." Itachi looks at them blandly then smiles a little.

Sakura giggles madly in Shisui's arms and he gently sets her down.

"Big day today Sakura, I know you and Sasuke will do well, good luck on your genin test." Itachi says as he looks to the sky. "You had better get going, I am sure Sasuke is wondering where you are."

"See you later!" She smiles and flickers away.

Shisui grins at Itachi, "A little jealous there cuz? Our little enigma is growing up isn't she. In the next four or five years she is really gonna turn into a looker. We're going to have to beat the guys off with spears."

"She is 12 years old Shisui, I don't think of her like that. It isn't appropriate for you to pick her up and swing her around like a doll anymore though, she is getting older, as you say." Itachi gives him a stern look.

"If you say so, doesn't matter anyway, Sasuke has it in his head that they are going to be married I bet anyway." Shisui watched his cousin for the twitch.

Itachi's jaw twitched...there it was.

"Sasuke can think as he chooses, that fact is she has never once looked at him that way." Itachi flickers away.

"But you have." Shisui grins and flickers away.

Sakura met Sasuke, Naruto and Ino by the front gate to the academy.

"I'm so excited, I know I'm going to pass I just know it!" Naruto is pumping his fist in the air jumping up and down like some orange Yo-Yo.

"Of Course you will pass idiot after how many days and hours Sakura spent working on your clones with you, you better pass." Sasuke told him.

"And not just any clones, shadow clones! I still can't get over how you knew that forbidden jutsu Forehead!" Ino smiled at her best friend in admiration.

"You guys need to read more." Sakura yawned.

Everyone started walking into the academy, excitement ran like lightning from one student to the other.

3 hours later they all walked out with their head bands in their hands. Ino already had hers tied around her waist.

"How are you going to wear yours Sakura?" Ino asked.

"Around my Forehead." Sakura said, she could cover her seal that way and her hair covered her other one.

"You just want to wear it that way because Sasuke is going to wear his that way." Ino pointed at Sasuke who had just finished tying his headband to his forehead.

"No, I think it is easier this way, won't fall down as much and will keep most of the hair out of my eyes." Sakura smiled at her blonde friend.

Her other blonde friend had tied his around his Forehead and was grinning like a loon.

"My mom is probably waiting for us at the house Sakura." He took her by the hand and started leading her away from the group.

"Hey , you can't just take her and walk away like that lover boy, she had another friends you know!" Ino called after them as they got further and further away. Ino smirked.

"Why does he always do that?" Naruto frowned after his two friends that were heading to the Uchiha compound.

"He is in love." Ino said simply. She had long given up on Sasuke, she could see he clearly had eyes only for Sakura, no matter how much Sakura tried to deny it. She just didn't understand that girl...who wouldn't want an Uchiha head over heels for them? Although, Ino grinned to herself, maybe Sakura wanted a different Uchiha.

"Well I'm off, I have to help mom at the flower store, you coming over for dinner tonight Idiot?" Ino smile at Naruto.

"Believe it!" he gave her two thumbs up and she rolled her eyes, idiot.

Sasuke slid the door to their house open for Sakura and she stepped inside to the smell of the most amazing thing, fresh dango.

"I love your mom's cooking Sasuke, she is the best cook in the world." Sakura could almost taste the tender sweet dango and her mouth was watering.

"Is that you Sakura dear?" Mikoto came around the bend in the hall dango sticks in hand.

"Tadima." Sakura and Sasuke both said at once." Saskura almost lived with them half of the time she was there so much, like an extended non sharingan Uchiha.

"Okaeri." Mikoto smiled at them. "Tea is in the tea room and ready help yourselves, Shisui and Itachi are already in there. Your dad should be home for dinner soon Sasuke."

Sasuke and Sakura made their way to the Tea room and sat down at the table by Itachi and Shisui.

"So congrats guys, welcome to the world of ninja." Shisui teased them as he poured Sakura's tea for her.

"Congratulations Sakura and Sasuke." Itachi half smiled at them both pulling out a long box, one with silver wrapping, the other red. He handed the silver one to Sakura and the red to Sasuke.

"Wow Itachi! Thank you!" Sakura was grinning as she looked at the box.

"You didn't unwrap it, how do you know to be happy, you don't even know what it is." Sasuke looked at her confused.

"It's a katana of course." Sakura started to unwrap the present She ran her hands over the smooth dark wood grained surface of the traditional box it came in and murmured, "So beautiful." then she opened the box and let out a gasp." Ita."

Sasuke and Shisui had both been looking at the sword but when Sakura had called Itachi Ita, they both looked at her in surprise...and so did Itachi, who was smiling.

"It's so beautiful Itachi." She pulled it from the case admiring the craftsmanship, drew its length from it's scabbard and skimmed her hand to bloody it, then slid it back home with skill.

"This is not the first time you've handled a blade." Itachi watched her.

"No," She smiled.

"I'm sure she can tell you all about it after we see Sasuke's...Ita." Shisui teased them.

Sakura's face went red and Itachi blushed...Sasuke's face went red too but with anger.

"What's going on? Why did you buy Sakura a katana Itachi? I'm your brother but she isn't even part of the family." Sasuke said meanly.

"Sasuke." Sakura looked at him hurt.

Sasuke had enough shame to look guilty and sorry but he didn't apologize, he just glared at Itachi.

"Sakura is like family since you brought her home with you 5 years ago, she has been here with us in our lives ever since. I just wanted to say congratulations to both of you for all your hard work." Itachi looked at his brother to say something to that.

Sasuke made some sort of grumbling noise and looked away.

"Open your present Sasuke and stop being a jerk." Sakura raises a brow to him and he immediately started to tear at the paper. It was a beautiful blade, almost identical to Sakura's, except it had an Uchiha clan symbol on it whereas hers has a cherry blossom tree.

Sasuke turned it over in his hand and drew it our admiring the blade and went to drive it home when Sakura stopped him.

"You need to bloody it." She told him.

"Why?" He looked at her confused.

"You always bloody a new blade with your blood, that way it doesn't turn on you and it knows its purpose." She told him as if he should have already known this. He looked to Itachi and Shisui.

"She's right, it is an old tradition, but it is only done in clans of prestige and honor, such as ours." Itachi smiled at Sakura as he motioned Sasuke to do as she said. He did and slid the blade home.

Dinner was wonderful per usual and Sasuke walked Sakura home just like he always did.

They were coming up to her home when Sasuke stopped and took her hand. "Do you um, do you like my brother?" He asked her like he didn't really want to know the answer.

"Huh?" She said.

"I saw you looking at one another and well, it seems like you are closer than you appear." He hesitated. "I only wondered if you were."

-well of course you are duh, you only train with him almost every day and if not him with Shisui-

"I like your brother as I like you Sasuke, and Shisui, I love all you guys, you and Ino and Naruto." She smiled at him. She knew what he was asking she was 16 in her mind not 12, but she also wasn't ready to revisit those feelings. It confused her because she was 16 in her head and not 12, and she had started to have feelings for Itachi and Shisui and maybe a little for Sasuke if she were honest.

"Oh, okay." He said and let go of her hand.

"Sasuke, I am really glad we are friends. You know I care about you right?" She touched his shoulder.

He brought his hand up to hers as it rested on his shoulder and took it in both of his hands. "I know." he kissed her on the cheek and walked away before she could respond.

She spun around and watched him walk away her hand to her cheek where he had kissed her. She groaned into her hands and shook her head walking into her home and closing the door.

Red eyes watched her walk upstairs and turn the light to her bedroom on and draw the shades, then they were gone.

Sakura woke up with mixed feelings. Today they would meet their genin team. She was sure that she would have the same teammates and that they would have the same sensei, but she was not sure how she felt about seeing Kakashi sensei again. She loved him, but she remembered how he never really taught her anything and how in this life he had wanted to test her for Anbu.

Both Itachi and Shisui had told her, under confidence that Kakashi had been taken out of Anbu and put in charge of a Genin team because the Lord Third thought he was losing his humanity. The solution, give him three fresh out of the academy students to torture and ruin right?... Right.

Rolling out of bed she dressed in her new norm, a black short kimono wrapper tied around the waist with a green sash the color of her eyes and black capris. She had switched out the blue headband wrapper last night for a green one to match her sash. She looked at herself in the mirror, she likes it, she looked nice.

She strapped her katana to her back and headed out her window yelling goodbye to her mom.

She met Ino by the front door and they walked to the academy together for the last time.

"It feels weird doesn't it Sakura? Being real Genin?" Ino asked her on the way there.

"A little but, I am excited. I can't wait for my first mission." She couldn't either, her first real mission that is. She wanted to test her skills against Haku.

"I hope we get put on the same team but since I am a Yamanaka we probably won't. I'll be with Shikamaru and Choji." She made a face. It was bad enough she saw them at every family gathering every event and at school, she didn't want to be on the same team with them but it was inevitable.

"I hope I get a good team." She already knew of course but she had to keep up appearances.

"I wonder who will get stuck with Naruto, don't get me wrong, I like him a lot better than I used to but man is he annoying!" Ino laughed and so did Sakura.

"He isn't that bad, I wouldn't mind being on his team." She smiled thinking back to the first time she heard she would be on team 7 with him.

"There's Sasuke, he can't take his eyes off you girl!" Ino was doing that annoying squealing thing again that hurt Sakura's ears.

Sasuke was standing by the gate to the academy and he was looking at her. She smiled and waved at him and he waved and started walking toward her.

"Ino, can I talk to Sakura alone for a sec." He asked the shocked blonde.

"Uh sure, I'll meet you inside Forehead." Ino waved and grinned at her.

"Sakura, I uh, if we get put on different teams I still want to hang out with you like we do now. I don't want us to um, I don't know, drift apart. I ...care about you." He wouldn't look at her, but a slight pink tint crept up his face.

"I don't want to lose track of you either Sasuke." She thought for a moment. "Promise me, on your name, Sasuke Uchiha, that you will never abandon me, never turn your back on our friendship, our bond." She pulled a kunai from her waistband and knicked her thumb, then held out her hand.

Sasuke stood there looking at her dripping thumb for a moment and then did the same, pressing his thumb to hers. "I promise as your friend Sasuke Uchiha to never abandon you or break this bond." Then he leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth. "Until we form another bond." he took her hand and led her stumbling into the building.

-What the fuck just happened-


	7. Chapter 7

Everyone had their Jounin Instructor except Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto. Yes, they were on the same team again and she was very happy. For a fearful moment, she thought she might have changed something that would disrupt the team she got put on, but it didn't and it turned out okay.

"Where is he?" Naruto whined.

"Maybe he got lost on the path of life?" Sakura said before she could stop herself.

-and what will you say when he uses that excuse later?-

Sorry Inner, she thinks to herself.

"What?" Sasuke asks her.

"Um, nothing." Sakura laughs it off.

She can feel his chakra signature, how did she never notice, it was different than she remembered it to be, it was darker. She immediately stood up and faced the door. Sasuke gave her an odd look but then smiled as a moment later the door started to slide open. She had sensed him he thought to himself, she really was remarkable.

Kakashi walked into the room and pretended to look around. Kakashi's eye met Sakura's and she stiffened.

"Well, let's go up to the roof shall we?" He poofed away.

Sasuke and Sakura began walking to the roof while Naruto complained the whole way that it wasn't fair he didn't walk with them.

He was still complaining when they got to the roof and when they sat down in front of their new Sensei.

"If you don't like walking learn the body flicker," Kakashi says smoothly to Naruto.

"But but but like that's totally impossible at our level Sensei!" Naruto starts wailing.

"Is it?" Kakashi looks at Sakura.

"It is for him." She laughs lightly like it is a joke. Kakashi doesn't laugh.

Sasuke looks from Kakashi to Sakura, "Have you two met before?" He asks.

"No," they both said at the same time.

"So, should we introduce ourselves?" She looks at Kakashi.

"Sure, go ahead." Kakashi sits on the rail in front of them.

"I'm Haruno Sakura, age 12, new Genin, I have water and earth chakra nature, I read a lot and want to learn as many jutsu as possible.'

"And you," He points to Naruto.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I want to marry Ramen cause I looooove it and I want to be Hokage."

"And you." Kakashi points to Sasuke.

"I am Uchiha Sasuke, I want to awaken my Sharingan and find a way for my clan to awaken their Sharingan and get to the next levels without trauma. I no longer want the name Uchiha to be associated with being a Cursed clan."

"Really?" Sakura looks at him in astonishment. So this is what he would have said before. She is a little more than surprised.

"Really." He looks at her.

"I will do everything I can to make that your reality." She says with sincerity..

"Uh, thank you, Sakura." He blushes.

"Interesting." Kakashi is watching her again.

"What?" She looks at him.

"I mean, what Sensei?" She smiles. Kakashi had spent so much time telling them to stop calling him Sensei when they had gotten older, it was hard to get back into the habit again.

"That's a bold statement to make at such a young age." Kakashi is still looking at her.

"I meant it." She said.

"I don't doubt you." He smiled.

"Neither do I." Sasuke smiled at her too.

"Kura can do all sorts of cool stuff, she can'' Naruto began but Sasuke hit him over the head and Sakura looked at Kakashi to see if he noticed but he was inspecting a piece of lint on his shirt.

She knew he noticed though.

"Okay well then, let's meet at dawn by the old hill, for our first mission, of survival. Don't eat breakfast or you will throw up." Kakashi said then poofed away.

"That was...weird, right?" Naruto asked the others.

Sakura frowned, "Yeah, weird."

"Wanna go get some ramen?" Naruto asked them.

"You and Sasuke go I need to go check on something." She flickered away.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked Sasuke.

"Who knows. See you tomorrow Naruto, I'm going home." He started heading for the stairs.

"Awww come one Sasuke!" Naruto started to whine as he followed him down the stairs.

Sakura hopped down from the big tree she had flickered to and walked out into the small clearing. Back straight she bowed to the north and drew her sword in a graceful arc off her back bent low and thrust up point even with the branches in the sky. Kick out to the left, low spin step right up and down, a graceful movement to the middle and she shot forward blade to the side, one swift swing, one flick of her wrist and she stopped the blade just shy of his throat.

"Kakashi Sensei, you startle me." She had yet to lower her blade. What was he doing here?

"If I startled you, then the past three years have been a waste." He raised an eyebrow and she lowered her blade from his neck slowly, twirled it in her wrist once and sheathed it without looking back onto her back.

"Three years hum. That is a long time to watch out for nothing." She smiled at him. So, he had been watching me like I thought, a damn dog with a bone.

"It was not nothing that I just saw." He comes back with quickly. She is avoiding the true topic, why.

"You have masked your chakra better this time than any time before, what did you do this time that you haven't done before?" She inquired.

"Yet you knew I was still here." He said, he knew she knew he had been watching her, what she didn't know is he had requested her for team 7.

"I am a sensor...among other things." She continued to smile sweetly at him.

"I have to trust you, we are a team now. You refused to join me in Anbu, I am not part of Anbu now, but I am your Sensei, you shouldn't hide your skill from me, it could be dangerous for the team." He spoke the truth and she knew it.

"My boys know the truth, they know the extend to my skill save one Jutsu, but they know." She said. Was it too soon, the Kakashi she knew might not be this Kakashi before her now. When they had met she had been weak, he had learned to trust her over time, this Kakashi was suspicious.

"And which pair would that be, Shisui and Itachi, both former members of my Anbu team, or Sasuke and Naruto currently on our team?" He was serious she could tell, she wouldn't leave here without answering him. He must have seen the thought cross her mind for he stepped forward and invaded her space. "Secrets can not be kept on a team. I need to know you will not abandon a teammate on a mission."

"I would never! Those who abandon their comrades are worse scum!" She all but yelled at him without thinking. How dare he accuse her of doing such a thing, she would never abandon her boys, that's the whole reason she was here!

"Rin?" Kakashi said in the voice of a smaller boy, then blanched. He poofed away in a puff of smoke.

He had called her Rin...oh Kakashi. Sakura felt terrible, why had she said that to him. It just came out. She knew it had been Obito to say that to him, to change him, but surely Rin had known too. The look on his face, that voice, the voice of the small boy who had killed his friend, the same age she was now. Oh, Kakashi she thought. She had to find him. She focused her chakra and sent it out around her searching, there, at his apartment. She flickered to his door and knocked.

Kakashi felt her chakra right before she knocked. He turned his head from the door and ignored her. Go away, he thought, I don't want to see any ghosts right now. He had wanted her on the team for her hidden skills, it was a well kept secret, he knew only a few people knew. He had wanted her for Anbu, yes, to protect her. It was only a matter of time before the wrong people noticed her strength and used her for their own gain. With her on his Genin team, he could protect her, like he wasn't able to protect Rin, and then, she had said "that" to him. "Rin, I swear, I swear Rin, I will watch over her like I should have watched over you. I won't let her die as you did."

He needed closure, he needed to redeem himself and he felt that watching over Sakura, helping her get stronger was his best chance at his much needed redemption. Maybe...one day he could look at himself in the mirror again without seeing the blood of the past.

She knew he was in there, she knew he was ignoring her but she understood. She went to the market, to the miso stand and got him pork miso with eggplant and set it on his balcony.

He saw her set something down and then flicker away. Yes, he knew it, She could use Shisui's body flicker, that proved it, she didn't try to hide it. He got up and went to his balcony. There was a small bag that smelled delicious. He opened it to find his favorite miso. How did she know? Rin used to make it for him, he knew Sakura hadn't made it but the feelings came rushing back to him as he popped the lid off to eat.

Sakura ate breakfast before she left her house the next morning, she knew what was going to happen. She packed two small Bentos with rice and an egg each for Naruto and Sasuke. They could eat them before Kakashi got there. Calling a goodbye to her mom, she ran out the front door with her backpack and katana. The sun was high when she got there, her boys were sitting side by side playing rock, paper scissors when she walked up the hill.

"Sakura we were worried, you're two hours late." Sasuke glowers at her.

"I figured he would be late so why hurry? I brought you guys some breakfast, I know he told us not to eat or we would throw up but I have a feeling he was lying so eat up." She hands them each a box and they eat. They are boys, they are always hungry.

"I bet he won't be here for another hour." She looks around. "Sasuke, why don't you have your katana with you?" She asks him.

"I don't really know how to use one yet and I didn't want to bring it if I can't use it." He looks at her and sees she has hers on.

"You know how to use one?" He never knew that.

"Yeah. I trained in it for a year or two but I still need to work on it." She admits. She was thinking of asking Shisui or Itachi to teach her.

When had she trained in it and with who? Sasuke can't remember seeing or hearing of her training with one before.

Kakashi showed up an hour later as she had predicted. He gave his whole spiel about taking him down for the bells and such and she cut him off.

"We need to work together as a team to get those bells boys, or we won't be able to get them. Well, I might be able to actually, but it isn't about any one of us individually." She looks at Naruto who nods and then at Sasuke who smiles. "Ready Boys?"

They nodded again. "Let's get this Copy Nin!" she all but sticks her sword in the air and yells charge!

It took them 3 mins. 3 mins. To get the bells from Kakashi.

"Um, you pass." He eye crinkles them like she remembers, only it looks a little fake.

"Want to get some ramen?" Naruto asks them after Kakashi dismisses them.

"I want to train some more Naruto sorry," Sakura says. "Why don't you go ask Hinata to get ramen with you, I heard it is her favorite food."

"Really?" Naruto's eyes get big and round.

"Yes, in fact, she told me the other day she wishes she had someone to eat ramen with, no one ever wants to go with her and Ichiraku ramen is her favorite!" Sakura nodded to him seriously.

He ran away grinning.

"Did she really say that?" Sasuke asked her.

"No but she is in love with him has been since the academy, if she doesn't like ramen she can learn to." and she laughed, Sasuke eventually laughed with her.

"Well, I can stay and train with you, if you want?' He looked at her.

"I was going to see if your brother or Shisui was free, do you want to come, I wanted to train with my katana that Itachi gave me, you can learn too as you wanted." She said

"Itachi Uchiha gave you a katana?" Kakashi asked her. They must be closer than he thought he mused.

"Yes, for graduation from the academy, Sasuke got one too." She looked at him, "Why."

"Um, just unusual is all." He said and poofed away.

"Does he always do that?" Sasuke frowned at the puff of smoke that was once their teacher.

"Yes," she laughed.

"So, wanna come home with me and see if they are available?" Sasuke asks her.

"Let's go." she smiles.

Three hours later…

"Sasuke, your guard is sloppy, it won't matter if you master the stroke if your opponent can get through to your heart first," Shisui spoke harshly to him.

"Guard up, arm lose but ready, again," Shisui instructed.

"Sasuke held his katana in his right hand crouched low and ran, spun brought his blade up, stepped in and ...Bam. Fell back on his ass.

"You had your guard up but left you're right open for attack, you're sloppy," Shisui told him seriously.

"Let's work on each step and then combine them, guard against my attacks, visualize where you think I am going to come from and then prepare for it." Shisui ran at him with his sword straight back and ready, Sasuke stiffened. Bam, he was flat on his back. Shisui stood over him with a frown.

"Let's watch Itachi and Sakura, maybe that will help, you can see what I mean. She is actually very good with a katana, she doesn't really need to learn as much as practice. Her style is somewhat familiar to me but I can't put my finger on it." Shisui was watching the pair across the field, his Sharingan activated.

"You mean you and Itachi didn't teach her?" Sasuke had assumed they were the ones who taught her the sword.

"She is an enigma isn't she." Shisui smiled as he watched her dance around Itachi blade in hand. "She is going to be beautiful when she gets older, strong, dangerous...beautiful."

"She is spoken for. We have made a blood bond." Sasuke looked at Shisui smugly.

"Have you?" Shisui was startled at first but then he said. "What kind of blood bond?"

"She asked for it, she asked me to never abandon her, to never break our bond as friends." Sasuke smiled.

"As friends." Shisui looked at his simple younger cousin. "She sees you as a friend Sasuke."

"It is more than that," Sasuke says defensively.

"Not for her," Shisui said simply.

They watched Sakura and Itachi exchange blows, dodge and weave back and forth. Shisui was right she didn't need training, just practice. Sasuke could tell she was having fun...and so was Itachi, they were a good match of skill. Sasuke realized then, he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.


	8. Chapter 8

They had their first real mission. The land of waves, Tazuna. The time had come. She had given it a lot of thought. No more holding back.

They left by mid morning with Tazuna in tow. He and Naruto had gotten off to a bad start just like last time. Instead of walking by Sasuke she walked by Kakashi enjoying the morning sun on her face. Sasuke and Naruto walked behind Tazuna keeping the bridge builder in the middle. Sakura noticed the puddle that the demon brothers would be hiding in and glanced over at Kakashi, he nodded slightly and smiled at her in that off hand way.

Sakura glanced back at Sasuke and Naruto, they hadn't noticed...again. Tazuna gave her a lopsided smile and she smiled back. She knew everything would be fine and she continued on as usual only dropping back to walk by Tazuna. Kakashi winked at her then made a one handed hand sign at his side. She knew he had made his substitution.

The demon brothers flew at them like before, she merely stepped out of the way and in front of Tazuna, Sasuke jumped and threw his kunai and bam, Kakashi split into pieces, and bam, Sasuke was on the ground and Naruto was freaking out and freezing up. Kakashi apologizes like before and they all kinda stood there. Naruto swore on his wound to never freeze up again and they started walking again.

On the boat ride over, they figured out that Tazuna had withheld the information of possible nin attacks because they couldn't afford to pay for it. Kakashi of course agreed to do it anyway, which didn't match up to the Kakashi she knew at this time but hadn't noticed the difference last time because she really hadn't known him then. She gave him a slightly odd look and he returned it with a crinkle smile, less fake this time.

Sakura sensed him before she saw him. She knew she had sensed him before Kakashi too.

"Sensei, he's here." She said and stopped, taking a kunai out and slipping in front of Tazuna.

Kakashi flipped his headband up and scanned the area.

"Very impressive little girl, you sensed me before your Sensei did hum." Zabuza Momochi stood in a tree looking down at them.

"Tell your friend to come out of the shadows Zabuza, it's rude." Sakura sneered at him.

"Well well, I am impressed, and what might your name be little one?" Zabuza looked Sakura over. She didn't look very impressive, small, young and with that pink hair, she looked rather worthless as a shinobi, but there was something about her, her chakra was unusual.

"I am Sakura Haruno of the Village Hidden in The Leaves, you are Zabuza Momochi S-rank criminal and your shadow is Haku, with the Ice and water Kekkei Genkai, known as the ring of Mirrors. Come out Haku, come join us won't you?" Sakura taunted.

"Sakura, stop, take it easy, you almost sound like you have a grudge against them," Kakashi spoke next to her.

Naruto and Sasuke were unusually quiet. Sakura was taunting an S-Rank criminal.

"You're after the bridge builder aren't you Zabuza?" Sakura ignored Kakashi.

"Yes, and you are in the way, Haku, take the girl!" Zabuza pulled his massive sword and ran at Kakashi.

Kakashi created two water clones and leaped to the air, Zabuza swung his sword out missing Kakashi by and inch, Kakashi spun around and dropped to his knees drawing two kunai flicking them up and missed Zabuza.

Sakura drew her katana and slid under Tazuna yelling at Sasuke and Naruto to defend him, then popped up on the other side and swung up with her sword only to be deflected by Haku.

"I don't want to fight you, just let us have the bridge builder, this doesn't need to end in bloodshed," Haku spoke to her softly.

"I know Haku, you are a gentle soul who does not like war, you have suffered enough. I will end your suffering." Sakura smiled sweetly and kindly at him. She meant it. She knew she would not be able to save him, he would defend Zabuza to the end and Zabuza had to die.

"For our past, I will end it quickly." She flickered behind him to make a killing blow, but he was fast. She had forgotten how fast he had been.

"Our past?" Haku side stepped and came up at her side sending two senbon directly at her heart, she fell to the ground.

"I'm sorry, I knew you would not stop till we were dead. I had to." He turned then to assist Zabuza.

Sasuke and Naruto screamed her name, a loud piercing scream. Naruto started turning red, demon chakra flowing out from him, Sasuke's eyes spun and he awakened his Sharingan.

Sakura released her seal, black lines ran down her face and arms and she pulled the senbon from her heart and threw them at Haku who turned just in time. She ran straight at him and cut up across his chest killing him instantly.

Sakura saw Kakashi was on the water with Zabuza exchanging water dragons. When Zabuza saw Haku go down he went into a rage and was in front of Sakura in a heartbeat gripping her by the neck. She screamed and kicked at him trying to push chakra to her hands, but before she could wrench herself away from him she saw a lightning covered fist break through his chest, he dropped her and fell to the ground dead.

Sakura ran to Naruto and tried to calm him down.

"Naruto I'm okay, see, I'm right here." She said to him soothingly, She pushed healing chakra to her hands and rubbed it into his temples, eventually the nine tails cloak withdrew and he fainted into her arms.

Sasuke came up beside them. "Sakura, your face and your body, those lines, was that, was that your seal?" He was in awe of her.

"Yes. The aftereffect of my using it will hit me soon, I will need your help." She cringed as the first after effects started to kick in.

"Naruto give Sensei some of your chakra he is drained, we will need your help to get to the village where Tazuna lives." She motioned Naruto to stand and pushed him to Kakashi who was slumped over on the ground.

Her head started to hurt and she winced as the pain started creeping up her spine. She stood up but stumbled, Sasuke caught her and picked her up swinging her into his arms bridal style. She leaned her head against his shoulder and mumbled." Sorry."

"I'll take care of you, don't worry Sakura." he kissed the top of her head.

"Hey uh, come stay with my family at our house, it is the least I can do," Tazuna said as Kakashi collapsed beside them.

Naruto was sending chakra into him but it didn't seem to help much.

Sakura tried to move in Sasuke's arms but he hugged her closer, "Don't move Sakura, there is nothing you can do."

She shook her head, "My waist, soldier pill, give one to Kakashi, I need one too."

Sasuke moved her in his arms to reach her waistband and pulled two pills out and put one in her mouth. He called Naruto to come to get the other for Kakashi and he put it in Kakashi's mouth.

After a few minutes Kakashi rose to his feet if a bit shaky but better, he looked over at Sakura in Sasuke's arms, "Remarkable. We might not have made it out of that if not for her."

Tazuna's house was beautiful sitting by the water with an open floor plan and a good view. Sasuke put her in the room they had been provided making sure she was comfortable. Kakashi lay on a pallet across the room from her resting.

"Can you believe Sakura took out that kid? He seemed really strong and fast." Naruto and Sasuke were sitting by her bed talking.

"Kakashi said he was Jounin level easily, that even he would have had a hard time defeating him." Sasuke pet hair away from Sakura's face.

"What were those lines on her face Sasuke, what is that seal of hers?" Naruto looked at Sakura's now clear face as she slept.

"I don't know, it is one of the things she refused to tell me, but from what we saw I imagine it keeps healing her or something and allows her to fight but it costs a lot of chakra." It made Sasuke uneasy, using such a method always came with a high cost, he only wondered what it was.

She slept through the day and the next night waking on the second morning.

"Morning sunshine." Kakashi crinkle smiled at her. He was sitting on a cushion by her bed leaning over her like a white haired vulture.

"Ugh!, get back old man." She waved her arms in front of her trying to batt his face away.

"Glad to see you are back to your old self, you were rather impressive you know, I put that boy around Jounin level, thank you Sakura, we would have been in trouble if you hadn't been there. I don't think I could have taken them both on." Kakashi told her seriously.

Sasuke and Naruto came into the room then.

"Sakura you're awake!" Naruto ran and slid to her bedside grabbing her hand and rubbing it on his whiskered face.

"Uh hi there Naruto, can I have my hand back please." She yanked her hand out of his sticky grasp.

"Sakura, are you feeling okay?" Sasuke asked her.

"I'm fine, I will be back to myself in a few hours, don't worry."

"So, want to tell us what that seal does?" Kakashi asked her.

"Hum, well, basically it is a storage seal, I store my unused chakra in it when my regular reserves are full, and when I release it my body fills up with that reserved chakra. In other words, for a period of time, I can not die, no matter what. At least there isn't anything that is known to be able to kill me after I release the seal...yet." She told them.

Kakashi blinked at her. Naruto sat there with his mouth open and Sasuke nodded.

"I thought that might be it, I have a surprise for you ." He closed his eyes then opened them and they bled red, his Sharingan.

"Wow! Sasuke! You activated your Sharingan but how?" He hadn't fought Haku this time, she had.

"It was because of you, I thought, I thought he killed you, with his senbon in your heart, you fell and I thought you were dead." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry Sasuke, but I'm not dead. " She smiled at him.

"But you could have been, you could have died! What were you thinking of taking on someone as skilled as that?" Sasuke was yelling at her.

"What? I am just as skilled, you have no idea what I can do!" She was getting pissed now, who did this Uchiha think he was yelling at her when she was laying in bed recovering.

"I'll take you on right now and show you, you little twerp!' She made to rise from her bed but her arm gave out on her and she fell back down cussing.

"See! See what it did to you! You almost died!" He was ranting at her now.

"I did not almost die!" She was screaming at him.

Naruto was biting his nails looking back and forth between the two.

Kakashi stood up and looked at them both, "Enough. No one died that shouldn't time to rest, I want to get back to the village."

Sasuke huffed and walked out of the room slamming the door behind him.

"ASS!" Sakura yelled after him.

"Naruto, could you give Sakura and I a moment please?" Kakashi waved the boy out of the room.

Naruto patted Sakura's hand one last time and left.

"I knew you were hiding your true skill, so then, want to tell me where you learned how to form that seal and how to use it?" Kakashi was watching her face carefully.

"No." She smiled at him. "I can't tell you, Not because I don't want to but I can't."

He nodded, he could understand that.

"Okay, want to tell me how you know about Rin?" He looked out the window as he said it.

"Someone told me about her and how you were close and how you killed her with your Chidori. When you called me Rin, I felt terrible. I can't imagine the pain you must have been feeling." Her voice was sincere, he could tell she meant it.

"How did you know I liked Miso with eggplant." He asked her.

"It is my favorite." She smiled at him. It wasn't a lie.

"I won't ask who told you about Rin. I won't ask you things you can't tell me anymore." That was as close as a "You have my trust" statement one could get from Kakashi.

Sakura took his hand in hers and fell back asleep.

Kakashi watched her sleep for a little bit, her tiny hand in his, so much like Rin, and yet so much was different from Rin. She was remarkable.

She woke several hours later and found she was alone in the room. She rose from the bed and dressed. Finding the bathroom down the hall she washed her face and brushed her teeth then went back to the room and brushed her hair out. Feeling better she made her way downstairs to find everyone in the kitchen and dining room. She was introduced to Tazuna's daughter Tsunami and her son Inari.

Soon after they sit down to dinner and talk turned to Gato, and that he was the one to send those nin after Tazuna to prevent them from finishing the bridge.

Gato was a thug but a rich thug who hired other thugs to do his dirty work. They told the group of Leaf nin how Gato had set up shop on their little island a few years back and how everyone's lives had been filled with terror since. Tazuna said that the bridge would help, would open trade to the small island help with the poor economy, basically save them all but Gato wanted them to remain cut off from the mainland and that is what he wanted Tazuna dead, the Master Bridge builder.

They finished dinner and Sakura helped Tsunami clear the table and do the dishes. After she found herself enjoying the water and the moonlight on the deck outside of their house. She hung her feet over the side and leaned on the rail looking out over the water, it was beautiful. Such a beautiful village, she hadn't noticed it before. Had she always been so damn oblivious? She frowned at herself.

-Yeah, you were so head over heels in love with Sasuke that you never took the time to look around you, idiot-

Thanks, Inner, she thought and mentally stuck her tongue out at herself.

Sasuke came and sat down beside her," You look well rested. I was worried about you Sakura."

"It happens every time I use my seal." She shrugged.

"What is the cost of such great power though? There must be a cost to it." He asked her.

"I use it at the cost of my life. Every time I use it time is taken off my lifespan, and how much time depends on how often and how much of the chakra I use at a time. Not much was taken off this time, it is ok Sasuke, you don't need to worry." She took his hand and squeezed it.

"I care about you...more than, I...you mean a lot to me Sakura." He looked at her and she turned her head from the water to look at him.

"I love you like a brother, you and Naruto mean the world to me. I love you two so much it hurts sometimes." She laid her head on his shoulder.

He squeezed her hand and they sat there for a little bit before going back inside.

As he lay on his bed that night, he thought of their talk and how her head had felt on his shoulder and being so close to her. He thought of how he felt when he thought she was dead. He loved her. He loved her more than a sister. She might love him as a brother, but he wanted more. He looked over to her pallet on the other side of the room where she lay sleeping. I want more he thought, so much more.

Sakura watched the men moving around in the large house at the far end of the island. 3 guards, two private bodyguards, and Gato. That short ugly curly hair dick. She checked her stamina with healing chakra, checked her reserves. Good to go. She made the signs and three shadow clones popped into existence and went running off to take care of the guards while she moved to the roof to take care of the 2 bodyguards and Gato.

They never saw her coming through the window. She flew inside legs pointed before her knocking Gato to the floor. She stepped on him and jump kicked the first personal bodyguard threw two kunai and he was dead. A smile split her face as she pushed chakra into a point on her fingers and she ran then flickered and ran her hand through his chest killing him instantly. Turning to Gato she smiled and said, "Time to say hi to Zabuza Gato, you're going to Hell." and she ran her hand through his smaller chest, wrenching her hand loose and throwing his dead body against the wall.

It had only taken 3 minutes and it was done. Sakura jumped out the window dispersing her clones and made for the beach.

The full moon shone overhead casting silver shadows on the water. She stripped her clothes and laid them by her pack. Toes met soft sand as she walked slowly into the water to rub away the dried blood and bits of flesh from her arm and from under the nails. She stood waist deep in the water letting the waves ebb to and from her belly button sighing in contentment. It was done, they would all be okay. Inari, Tazuna, and Tsunami.

She turned then to walk back to shore and change her clothes when she saw him, he was standing by her pack watching her. Lifting her chin and covering herself as best she could she walked to her pack and picked it up turning to pull clothes from it and to dress as well as she might with him standing so close. She is seeing ghosts.

She sees them often, sometimes more than once a day, her friends from her past, like ghosts that come to watch her. Some talk to her and some don't, most just watch her. This is much the same, except he has never come before, he has never haunted her waking hours.

Fully dressed she turns around, "Madara Uchiha, what do you want, why haunt me now, so many years after, or before?"

He doesn't say anything, she didn't expect him to, most never do. She picks her things up and walks back to the house and gets back in bed dismissing her clone she left in her place before she left to kill Gato.

In the morning they leave, to return to the Leaf.


	9. Chapter 9

Two years later….

The night before had been a nightmare, she had killed no less than 6 Sand nin that had tried to infiltrate Konoha. She had been out in the forest practicing her Water release jutsu and they hadn't sensed her but she had sensed them. It was an elite team, she suspected they were there to scout out weaknesses for the Chunin exams infiltration. She had killed two right away masking her chakra and catching them by surprise.

The next two had been more difficult, her body flicker had saved her from being stabbed through the heart. Dispatched with a kunai in each kidney they dropped like rocks and were unable to avoid her water bullets. Fortunately, she had managed to hit one of the last two with a water bullet and sent a flurry of poisoned senbon at them. The one protecting the other but both died.

Itachi had shown up shortly after in his Anbu mask and told her he would take care of them, to mask her chakra and to go home.

The next morning she woke to Itachi and Shisui at her door dragging her out of her parent's house for breakfast to explain because of her, they confronted and flushed out three more teams of six from the land of wind and eliminated them. Since they broke the treaty with Konoha they were no longer welcome to participate in the Chunin exams.

Good, she thought to herself and excused herself from the boys. She needed to think.

Sakura found herself alone in the forest two hours later practicing her Water release Jutsu, Raging waves. The chakra gathers to her mouth and she releases a strong massive stream of water from her mouth like a waterfall. She sits down on a rock and smiles, proud of herself.

"You are very gifted to have accomplished such a complicated jutsu at such a young age." A voice behind her spoke from the shadows.

"With the company you keep, I should expect nothing less." The low voice continued. "I have been watching you for quite some time now Sakura, you do not disappoint."

She hadn't felt his chakra she hadn't even known he was there. Unlike last time by the beach in the land of waves, there was no face to match with the voice, but she knew. It was Madara Uchiha. She flickered back to the village.

Madara would show up now and then in the form of a voice when she was alone, only when she was alone. She would be training or reading in a tree and he would speak to her. Sometimes he would ask her questions about herself, sometimes it was merely to compliment her newest accomplishment but always, it was from the shadows. She never saw his form, his face, only his voice, low and unyielding. It wasn't Obito, she was sure...it was always Madara. And she wondered why.

Another year later…

The summer festival was here and Sakura was very excited. She was meeting the Uchiha and Naruto by the ramen stand in the market and they were going to go together as a group. First, though she made a stop by the monument. She knew that none of her friends from her war were on it but she felt the need to come here to pay her respects none the less. Sometimes when the stress of her situation got to her she would just come and stand here looking at the cold stone, memories fading in and out of her mind. Faces, voices and pictures, some good some bad just wouldn't leave her head. When it was too much, when she couldn't hold it in any longer, she came.

She was dressed for the festival, in a dark blue kimono wrapper with little cherry blossoms embroidered along the collar and sash. She wore matching pants with it, cherry blossoms embroidered along the hem of the pants and down the sides. It had been a gift from Mikoto. Her hair was curled and drawn up over the crown of her head decorated with cherry blossoms to fall around her face. She looked quite lovely if she did say so herself.

"It feels odd to be here without all of you as I knew you. It must be my fault, I am the one who had changed. I never asked for this, and good has come of it, I just wish you could see it, feel it and know what is and what was, the difference in between. Is it bad to miss what happened, when I know all the sacrifices that were made, all the killing, the blood that came from it? The Uchiha are safe, Naruto is happy, Sasuke is still here. There is still so much I need to do. I am stronger now, I hope you can be proud of me. I promise I won't let you down." She removed a senbon from her waistband and pricked her finger, bending down she smeared the blood along the bottom of the stone and stood back up, tears in her eyes. She smiled then and wiped the tears away, bowed low once more and flickered away.

Red eyes faded into the trees.

The lights were bright and people were milling around everywhere, it was entertaining chaos. She smiled as she watched couples moving around the stands and the games. This was her favorite festival. Itachi spied her first and made his way over to her.

"Hi, Itachi!." Sakura smiled at him, he looked so handsome in his dark blue Hamakua, they almost matched. Had Mikoto planned this?

"Hn." He said and offered her his arm, which she took and they moved over to the rest of their friends by the ramen stand.

Kakashi was there talking with Naruto but when Naruto saw Sakura he bounded over to her smiling.

"Sakura! You look so beautiful all dressed up, so pretty. Will you dance with me later when the music starts?" The look in his eye was just so ...Naruto, she couldn't resist.

"Yes Naruto, I'll dance with you later." She smiled again.

Naruto pumped his fist in the air and yelled for joy.

As though not to be outdone Sasuke also complimented her on her looks and asked her to dance with him. She said yes of course and he smiled.

"I want to play some games, let's go!" She was already having a great time with her men.

Two hours later she had won three fish, two bracelets and a stuffed platypus. She sat down at a Dango stand and ate the Dango Itachi had gotten her. Shisui flopped down beside her and snagged at stick for himself. Itachi frowned at him but he laughed and threw down some money.

"I'll get the next round of Dango." Shisui smiled at them.

"Where did Naruto and Sasuke go? The music is starting." Sakura looked around but she didn't see them.

"They went to best one another at the frog shoot stand, Naruto said he could shoot more frogs than Sasuke and well, Sasuke wasn't going to let him get away with it, soooo." Shisui laughed.

"I'll dance with you Sakura." Itachi stood and offered his arm to her, she took it and they moved to the dancing couples already out in the square.

Itachi held her around her waist and she put her arms up over his shoulders and they swayed back and forth to the soft slow music. She was looking over his shoulder in slight embarrassment with a rose tint on her cheeks when he spoke.

"You look stunning tonight in the dark blue with the blossoms on the collar, it brings out your natural beauty. You really look wonderful in Uchiha colors Sakura." Itachi was looking at her with those dark coal eyes of his, his face comically blank. She knew when he did that he was hiding strong feelings, and it hit her then. Itachi liked her...romantically.

Sakura had always admired Itachi, always thought he was very attractive but, knowing he had some feelings for her was...surprising to her. She didn't quite know what to say.

"Uh, thank you, Itachi. I don't know what to say." She looked up at him blushing sweetly.

"My brother seems to think you belong to him because of a blood bond you two made." He wanted to know what it entailed, Shisui had told him it was a bond of friendship but he preferred to hear it from her.

"Not a romantic bond, I just, "She paused then, How could she explain this to him." Sasuke is very passionate and I could see him falling prey to um, dark desires of power. I made him promise me in blood to never abandon me, our bond of friendship. I was...trying to protect him." She looked away from him then as if a little embarrassed.

"I am glad my brother has such a loyal friend and teammate." Itachi smiled, she really was quite remarkable, he could fully understand why Sasuke wished to claim her, but by her own admission, she was not Sasuke's.

Itachi sighed internally as Shisui tapped him on his shoulder.

"Cutting in cuz, step back and let me show you how to dance with a lady." Shisui grinned at his cousin then at Sakura. She smiled and nodded.

Itachi smiled at Sakura and handed her off to his cousin.

Shisui grabbed her around the waist, picked her up and swung her in a tight circle, "You look really great my flower, hot!" He grinned at her. "How many more years till your legal only one right?" He gave her a wolfish grin and she smacked him lightly on the shoulder.

"Shush you flirt! I know for a fact you say that to all the pretty girls Shisui you player." She laughed into his smiling eyes.

"I wouldn't be the player with you my little enigma, you are worth so much more than any of them." He looked down at her more serious now.

She paused in her laughing to regard him with a focused eye. "You are being so serious now, are you feeling well?" She reached her hand up glowing green to feel his temperature.

"I'll always be hot for you my little blossom, now hurry up and get older." He took her hand in his and spun her around then tugged her back into his arms, "I can wait." He smiled at her and kissed her on the nose when the song ended and they walked back over to a frowning Itachi.

Kakashi came up to them then and handed a stuffed dog that looked a lot like Pakkun to Sakura. "I already have three." and walked away. She laughed and hugged the dog to her chest burying her nose in the soft stuffed fur.

"Hey, Sakura! Sakura! Come over here!" Ino waved at her obnoxiously from a little bar stand with cherry wine and other sweet liquors. Her mom stood behind the counter.

Itachi, Shisui and Sakura walked over to her admiring the small little colored bottles lining the shelves.

"Happy Summer Festival!" Ino yelled and fell on Sakura with an alcoholic hug that almost knocked her over.

"Ino, you're drunk!' Sakura giggled at her friend as she peeled her off of her chest.

"Observant as always Sakura, my mom had me help her sample the new mixes but I'm done in, here, drink this and tell my mom if it needs anything else." Ino pushed a small glass of something green into her hand.

Sakura sniffed it and recoiled, "I'm not a big drinker Ino, you know that." She tried to give it back to her but her friend was adamant. So she downed it and smacked her lips.

"Needs something sweet to balance the sour," Sakura told Ino's mom.

Ino's mom took out several bottles and mixed up another drink and handed it to Sakura, "try this one dear."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at Shisui who was grinning like a fiend.

Sakura downed it and handed the glass back to Ino's mom. "Oh, that was much better, very good," Sakura said quickly.

Four more drinks later Sakura fell back onto the grass looking up into the sky, admiring the stars that seemed to be swirling around in the night.

Shisui lay next to her and Itachi sat cross legged on her other side sighing. Just as Sakura was going to ask Itachi why he was sighing she felt Sasuke and Naruto moving in on their location.

"The Froggie twins are coming." She laughed at her own joke.

"I felt them too." Shisui laughs and rolls over to put his arm under her neck.

She turns her head and smiles at him, she is having such a wonderful night, she is so thankful for her boys.

Sasuke's and Naruto's heads come bobbing up over the slope of the hill they are on and Naruto calls out, "Hey Sakura I hope you saved a dance for me!"

She groans, she forgot, she can't dance now she can't even stand up.

"Sorry Naruto, Ino's mom had me taste test a bunch of her drinks, I'm in no condition to dance, come lay down though and watch the stars with me." She rolls over and sits up slowly.

"Are you drunk Sakura?" Sasuke glares at Shisui.

"What are you looking at me for, I didn't do anything, blame Ino!" He grinned.

"Yo." Kakashi greets them poofing into existence in front of them holding a mission scroll. We have a mission, we leave tomorrow, early."

Sakura groans and lifts chakra infused hands to her head and burns the alcohol out of her system. She sits up sober and frowns at the scroll in Kakashi's hand, "I was having such a good time being drunk for the first time too."

"Don't worry flower, I'll get you drunk again soon." Shisui laughs.

A masked figure drops down by Itachi and hands him a scroll then leaves.

"Looks like we have a mission too." Shisui groans.

Itachi unrolls the scroll, "We need to leave in the morning too, we are escorting a team." He raises a brow to Kakashi.

"Well team 7 let's head to bed, we will need all the rest we can get. We have a long walk to the textile town of Taka." Kakashi looks at Itachi.

"Looks like we will be escorting you." Itachi pokes Shisu, "Time for bed."

Everyone grumbled their goodbyes and went home only to meet at the gate a few hours later.

Both Sasuke and Sakura had their katanas and were chatting when three Anbu dropped down beside them. Sakura recognized Itachi and Shisui right away of course but not the third one, oh wait, his chakra signature, Neji Hyuuga. She nodded her greeting to them and they nodded back.

Kakashi and Naruto came up to them then with a taller white haired man that Sakura knew was Jiraiya. She was a little surprised to see him, was he joining them on their mission?

"Hey, who's the pretty flower Naruto?" Jiraiya winked at Sakura.

"I'm underaged you old pervert back off." She smiled sweetly at him.

She swore she heard Shisui and Sasuke stifle a laugh.

"I like a little fire baby, what do you say we." He didn't get to finish because Kakashi's Chidori could be heard to his right, Kakashi held the lightning in his hand and gave a stern look to Jiraiya.

"Ok ok, off limits I get it, calm down, just being friendly." The old man smiled at them.

"Don't you two need to get going, you came to say goodbye right?" Kakashi looked at Naruto.

"Goodbye? Sakura asked, oh, was Naruto going to go travel with the Pervy Sage?

"Yeah, I am going to go with this old guy here for a couple of years, he is one of the legendary Sannin Sakura! Isn't that great? He can teach me all sorts of new stuff ya know?" Naruto was really excited.

"I'm happy for you Naruto, be safe, okay?" Sakura hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Work hard to become stronger than you already are."

"I will Sakura!" Naruto smiled and the others came forth to say goodbye and he and Jiraiya set off out of the gates ahead of them.

"Two years, that's going to be awhile," Sasuke said. "I wonder how it will go?"

"I think it will be good for Naruto and I bet he will come back with an incredible new Jutsu." Sakura smiled, she was still watching the two walk away from Konoha but turned back to Sasuke and smiled when they disappeared behind the turn in the road.

"We should get going too." Kakashi leads them out of the village, the Anbu take to the trees and follow at a reasonable distance.

"What is this mission about, other than traveling to a small unheard of village, why are we going?" Sasuke asks Kakashi while they run through the trees.

"The whole village is dying from some unknown disease and they need a medical expert, the only one around is Sakura. It is a very important mission and they are paying us a lot of money. Sakura has made a name for herself, she is even in the Bingo book now, just like her Sensei." Kakashi eye crinkled her and she laughed.

Yes, over the last few years Sakura had made quite a name for herself since she decided not to hold back anymore. Kakashi wrote all their mission reports in detail and when they started doing more and more missions of higher ranks the Hokage had brought her in for some testing and had prompted her to Chunin on the spot.

He had been so impressed with her medical prowess the following year she was named a jounin medic-nin . Later that same year on a mission to the land of tea her super monstrous strength had come to their attention and she was named a jounin after being tested by two elite jounin and an Anbu captain, Itachi.

Sakura at age 15 was now a Jounin like Kakashi. Sasuke had made Chunin last year but Naruto was still a Genin.

Kakashi had wanted Sakura tested after the land of waves but the Hokage had denied the request.

They traveled for most of the day, stopping only once to eat, they made a good time and were halfway there by the end of the night. Kakashi called for a rest and set to making the campfire while Sakura and Sasuke went fishing.

Sakura manipulated the water and changed the current directing the fish into a small contained pool so all Sasuke need do was scoop them out. They came back to camp with enough for everyone to have two fish for dinner. Shisui gutted and hung them on wires over the campfire while everyone sat around to chat and wait for them to cook.

Normally the Anbu wouldn't join the team they were following but this was a bit different. Sakura had been offered a position three times now to join, Kakashi was a former Anbu captain, and Shisui and Itachi couldn't hide their identity from Sakura or their former Captain, not to mention a brother and cousin. Neji, Sakura knew his chakra signature already.

After dinner, Itachi and Shisui took the first watch while the others laid out their bedding and went to sleep.

Most of the team was tired having stayed up late for the festival the night before and fell asleep quickly. She felt bad for Itachi and Shisui, they had been up late with them at the festival but didn't get to rest yet. She gave it one last thought before falling asleep herself.

It had seemed like moments later Sakura was awake but it had to have been at least a few hours. The camp was silent, everyone was asleep but Itachi and Shisui. She could feel them close by each in a different lookout position. She sat up rubbing the sleep from her eyes, what had woken her up?

He stood just outside of the fire's range watching her with his red eyes. Madara. She pushed back the covers of her bedding and stood up to face him. What did he want? Why hadn't Shisui or Itachi sensed him? She walked a few steps towards him and he turned and walked a few steps away. She paused then walked toward him some more and stopped at the edge of the light of the fire, should she follow him?

Madara walked on, not looking back and not stopping anymore, she followed. He led her away from the camp where her team slept, away from the fire to a cave by the river. Shadows stretched out across the waters, out of the mouth of the cave. Had that cave been there earlier when she and Sasuke had come to fish from the river? She couldn't recall it.

His shadowy figure stopped by the cave and waited. She walked up to him and he smiled. She could see him in greater detail than in the land of waves. He was about 25 in age and he was very handsome. She couldn't sense any chakra though, was he masking it? She could sense a strong powerful aura emanating from him, it was dangerous and exciting.

"Sakura." His voice was as deep as she remembered, low and sultry.

"Madara." She looked him in the eye, standing tall wondering why she was there, why her.

"There is something I wish to show you, my dear." He held out his hand to her and she raised her hand to take it but stopped drawing her fingers back.

He made no move to grasp her hand, just held his up, in place, waiting for her to put her hand in his.

"In the cave?" She asked.

"Yes. There is something I wish for you to see in the cave." He said smoothly, enticingly.

She stretched her fingers outward to take his hand when she felt Shisui close by and stopped.

"Now dear, you must come with me now," Madara said more forcefully and stepped toward her as if to grab her.

"Stop!" Sakura yelled and was pulled back and away from Madara by Shisui.

.


	10. Chapter 10

Sakura woke in Shisui's arms, she hadn't recalled falling asleep or passing out. She pushed her way out of his embrace looking around for Madara, he was nowhere to be seen. She settled back into the warmth Shisui provided and tried to recall every detail from the night. She was interrupted by Shisui.

"Sakura, what was that thing, was it trying to take you somewhere?" He hugged her to him as he asked her.

"It was." She hesitated, should she tell him? She had kept it a secret for the last three years, she thought it was her imagination but Shisui saw something, he referred to Madara as a thing.

"Did it look like someone to you?" She asked him a question instead of answering his.

"I couldn't make out any details but it looked like a shadow of a human, do you know what it is?" He looked down at her.

"I think it was." She took a deep breath, "Madara Uchiha." She could feel his grip tighten around her.

"Madara Uchiha of the warring states era, you mean one of the founders of Konoha." Shisui pushed her.

"Yes, he talks to me sometimes, comes to me when I'm alone. He doesn't always talk sometimes he just watches me. I don't know why. This is the first time he tried to reach for me though, tried to get me to go somewhere with him." She sounded crazy, she knew, it sounded crazy even to herself.

"Where did he want to take you?" Shisui asked her kissing the top of her head.

"Into the cave, we were standing beside." She told him.

"I didn't see a cave Sakura, there are no caves here that I know of," Shisui confirmed what she had thought, that the cave hadn't been there before.

"I thought he was in my head, I thought I had imagined him, like a dream. I see ghosts from my past every day, sometimes they talk to me, but most don't. I thought he was just another ghost." Sakura told him.

"You need sleep, I'll take you back to camp."

He picked her up and flickered back to camp and laid her in her bedroll then went to find Itachi and tell him everything he had seen and what they talked about.

Morning came and with it more questions. Itachi found her by the river washing her face before they left to continue their mission.

"Sakura, Shisui told me about last night. How often does he come to you?" He asked her, no hint of disbelief or mocking in his voice, only concern.

"Usually when I train alone, sometimes when I read but always when I am alone, the first time was three years ago in the land of waves." She told him what she had told Shisui.

Itachi wanted to ask her more but he could tell she was holding something back. He didn't want to pressure her, he knew she kept secrets, things she couldn't or wouldn't tell them.

Itachi nodded, "I think until we can understand why he is coming to you, you shouldn't be alone. Shisui, Sasuke and I would be happy to train with you. You told Sshisui he had never tried to take you anywhere or make physical contact with you before last night. I think because the situation has changed and as I said, we don't know what he wants with you, it might be best if you stay close to others and not go off on your own."

Sakura understood why he was saying this, "If, if he comes again, I will just ask him what he wants from me, maybe, maybe he will tell me?" She said hopefully.

Itachi smiled at her," Maybe."

They went back to camp together and the two teams left to continue their mission.

Evening the next day brought them to stand on the main road of a small village. It was a favorite summer village of the Lord of the Fire country, who liked to visit with his family, who had commissioned their mission.

"I am Hama", an old woman introduced herself to them as they entered the village's main building. "Thank you for coming, which one of you is the healer, I will take you to the sick myself."

Sakura stepped forward, "I am the healer." She smiled at Hama.

"You are so young! Follow me then, we will see if you live up to your reputation." and the old crone walked out of the room leaving Sakura to follow.

Kakashi went with her while the others unpacked their things at the inn.

Hama led them to a grouping of small little homes on the edge of the village. Each house had its own yard but shared a well in the center of the grouping Sakura noticed. Hama told them as they walked that this was the center housing for the councils of the village, mostly retired but a few still served on the board. In other words, important people Sakura mused.

They entered the first house to a sickly sweet smell in the air, of semi rotted meat. Kakashi stiffened at her side but didn't cover his mouth. They were led into a small bedroom, richly decorated with a small unmoving figure laid out uncovered.

"The ones who are ill tend to run high fevers, vomit frequently, cry out in pain. can not keep much down and are wasting away. They float in and out of consciousness and do not remember who or where they are, possibly due to the high fever and lack of sustenance." Hama told Sakura as she stepped forward to place chakra infused hands on the small elderly woman in the bed.

"Her chakra is being blocked, she is a retired shinobi?" Sakura didn't know there were shinobi in the land of fire that weren't in Konoha, unless she was an old missing nin.

"No, she chose a different path but she had a great reserve of chakra I am told." Hama gave Kakashi a wary eye. "Not all who have the gift of chakra chose to use it."

"Indeed, some use it to heal others like I am right now." Sakura said to the old hag.

"I can smell the blood on you child, young as you may be, make no mistake, you are a monster." Hama made her opinion of them clear.

"Yes, well, monster or not, I am going to save them, I do not expect your gratitude, I can see you will have none, but I am a ninja, and I will fulfill my duty. You may leave." Sakura told Hama and she left.

"The well Sakura, do you think it might be poisoned?" Kakashi asked her after Hama had gone.

"Yes, I will need samples and we will need to board it off and not let anyone use it till I get the test results. I can feel a foreign substance in her blood, blocking her chakra, it is most likely poison, I will need to check the others." She walked out of the bedroom and headed for the next house.

Three hours later found that each person, 5 in all, were all former council members and close friends of the Lord of the land of fire. They were indeed poisoned and it had come from the contaminated well. It was after midnight before Sakura laid down to rest in the small inn room provided to her. Kakashi lay asleep on a pallet across from hers.

She would need to make an antidote and see if the well could be sterilized and the poison drawn out so it could still be used. She had withdrawn a few samples of the poison from the well and matched them to the samples she had drawn out of the sick. It was a complex poison but not unlike one she had seen before. In her other life, Sasori of the Red Sand, had invented it, it had almost killed Kankoro.

Where were the Akatsuki now, was Obito still controlling them or did he die under that rock, where did Madara come into the picture. There were so many questions, so many things she didn't know, so many things she still had to change somehow. Sleep was impossible. She got off her bedding and walked back outside into the warm summer night. A masked figure dropped down beside her, Shisui.

"Can't sleep my little flower?" He teased her.

"No, too much is on my mind." She smiled at him.

"Hum, like deadly wasting poisons or spirits of the long dead come to lure you into caves?" His voice was slightly muffled through his mask but she could tell he was smiling.

"There is a group of, missing nin from different countries that have banded together out there somewhere, to the world they seem like terrorists, rogue evil nin set on destruction but, " She hesitated, "Their ultimate goal is world peace. They are just willing to kill a lot of people to get there."

"My little enigma, we never asked you, you know. How you knew about the coup or Danzo. Kakashi told us you killed Gato in the land of waves." He paused here and watched her for her reaction.

"They needed to be killed, they were evil, selfish men, the world is better without them in it." She defended herself.

"I agree, but that doesn't explain how you knew about Danzo or went off mission to kill Gato. It's like you have your own private missions, that no one but you knows about." Shisui reached out and tucked a strand of flyaway hair behind her ear. "Trust us Sakura, you don't have to do it alone, whatever it is you're doing."

He hugged her then. "Itachi and I trust you. Sasuke trusts you, and you can trust Kakashi."

She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck putting her head on his shoulder, her face buried in his neck. "Thank you Shisui, let me think a few things over, then, maybe we can all sit down and talk."

She sighed into his neck and his heart skipped a beat, his grip around her waist tightened, "Whenever you're ready beautiful."

"I think I will try to get some sleep, after all, thanks Shisui." She kissed his mask and went back inside to lay down.

Itachi dropped down beside Shisui, "She carries a lot on her small shoulders."

"Everything she has done has been for the good of Konoha or the good of something or someone. She killed Gato, now that little town is thriving, the bridge brought commerce and wealth to those once poor destitute people. Danzo is dead, out clan is safe because of her. We owe her more than she knows. More than our clan knows." Shisui looked up to the window of the room Sakura and Kakashi were sharing.

"How does she know these things, It is almost as if...she has been here before. Her chakra levels, her insane skill at such a young age, it seems impossible under normal circumstances." Itachi said.

"But under extraordinary circumstances?" Shisui smiled at his cousin, "Such as time travel?" Shisui was grinning now. "She might be older than us then after all."

"It is possible, but I don't think we should push her. If that is the case, she will not tell us openly." Itachi was looking at the stars overhead.

"It is possible, my body flicker is warping time after all, just on a smaller scale. It would explain a lot." Shisui rubbed his hand through his hair, making it stick out everywhere.

"Hn." was all Itachi said and they went back to their watch.

Morning came and Sakura was hard at work drawing the poison out of her patients with the buckets of water, back and forth for hours on end. She took a break at mid day with only one patent left to draw poison from. Sasuke and Kakashi had spent the morning testing the water and then using their chakra to purify the well, they were exhausted as they sat down for lunch. Sakura's hair had come loose in her efforts and she tied it up over her head in annoyance. Sasuke was sitting next to her massaging her sore hands while the others ate.

After lunch, she went to find her last patient and began the tiresome extraction, an hour later she was done and was feeling the afterglow of her efforts. Hama found her sitting outside of the last house running her fingers through her tangled hair.

"It seems you do live up to your name little girl. I am impressed. I heard your friends saying that you have encountered this poison before. Might I ask where you encountered it?" Hama sat close to her on the small bench and it made Sakura a little uneasy.

"It was long ago, in the land of wind, another life." Sakura laughs and waves her hand in the air as if dismissing her joke.

"Indeed, and who was the wielder of such a genius poison, for you admitted it took some great skills to make it." Hama pressed her point.

"It doesn't matter who made it, only that I was familiar with it and I have cured those affected by it." Sakura didn't like Hama, and she didn't like the questions she was asking.

"I think it does matter. I do not remember encountering a pink haired medic nin in my travels and certainly not one who could find an antidote to my poison." Hama looked her dead in the eye.

Sakura jumped to her feet and drew her katana, "Sasori."

Three masked figures fell beside Sakura from the rooftops.

"Who are you little girl, and how do you know so much about my poisons? You said you encountered my poison in the land of wind, in another life, what does that mean." Sasori said through the guise of the old Hag, a puppet no doubt.

"I told you, it doesn't matter!" Sakura leaped into the air coming down on the chakra strings she knew were there cutting them with her katana she had infused with chakra.

"He is a puppet master, the best in the world, his specialty is deadly poison, he is a prodigy, do not underestimate him!" She yelled to Itachi, Neji, and Shisui.

They nodded but were already in motion.

Sasori stepped out from the shadows of the houses where he had been controlling the puppet Hama, "So, you do know me. Pity, I don't have time to find out how."

Several scrolls fell to the ground and unrolled, he called his puppets out and the fight began.

Sometimes she forgot how strong her boys were until she saw them in action. Itachi was a graceful fighter, almost beautiful in his movements, weaving in and out of the chakra lines with ease, sending his crows out with a flick of his fingers.

Shisui was more confusing to watch but no less graceful. He body flickered here and there, in and out, up and down, he was amazing when he did make contact, puppet parts went flying past her head.

Neji was darting in and out cutting chakra strings so Sasori had to constantly reconnect losing precious seconds.

Kakashi appeared beside her smiling his crinkle smile with Sasuke not far behind.

"Sorry, we're late Sakura," Kakashi said before he jumped into the fight kunai flying, Sasuke drawing his own katana and going after the closest puppet.

"Looks like I'm outnumbered but before I go." Sasori pulled out a small scroll and a little black bug with wings flew out of the seal heading straight for Sakura, she dodged it and tried to get away but it landed on her shoulder and bite into her neck sucking out some blood and then flew back to Sasori to be sealed away again in his scroll.

Sakura dropped to the ground in pain grabbing her shoulder where she had been bitten.

"No!"Sasuke screamed and went for Sasori head on only to be stopped by Kakashi in time to see the razor sharp flash of the sword that almost took Sasuke's head off.

"I must go, enjoy suffering slowly little girl, thank you for your blood, we will meet again if you survive." Sasori turned and then vanished in a burst of smoke.

Itachi and Kakashi fell down beside Sakura and turned her over, trying to get her to unclench and lay flat but she refused and stayed hunched over and drawn in upon herself.

"Sakura, sakura are you poisoned?" It was Sasuke speaking to her she could hear the terror in his voice as he bent over her.

"Yes", she grits out, '' my bag, get my bag, blue tube, I need the blue one." She bit out in between the spasms of pain.

Sasuke raced to her room and back holding her bag, he dumped it out on the ground next to her finding the blue tube and uncorking it dumped it into her mouth.

It took everything she had to unclench her teeth and swallow. After a few minutes, the pain had subsided enough for her to lay flat but the poison wasn't out of her system yet.

"Two bowls of water, I need to extract the rest, hurry." She told anyone who would get the water for her, Itachi went.

"Can you, can you do this on yourself?" Neji asked her, he had seen her do it with her other patients, it seemed unlikely she would be able to complete the process while maintaining consciousness.

"Yes, because he doesn't think I can do it, that's why I have to." Words forced through her teeth.

Itachi smiled at her."I know you can do it Sakura, just tell me what you need us to do."

"Make sure I don't knock over the bowls of water and don't get in my way." She tried to smile but couldn't. "Okay, don't talk to me I need to concentrate." and she punched chakra into her hands and started to push water into her body with one hand and pull out the poison with her other hand.

She couldn't help it, she started screaming incoherent words, the pain was too much as she worked. Her team and the Anbu looked at each other with worried expressions. They caught some of the words she had said like, 4th world war, damn puppet master, again, fucking Akatsuki, stupid Madara, and I killed him once do I have to do it again.

It seemed like hours before she finally stopped, passed out on the ground before them. It had taken three times as long but she had done it.

Kakashi had carried her back up to their shared room and put her to bed. He came back down to the lobby of the inn to find the rest of them there talking in low voices. "You heard what she said right?" He asked them.

"Yes", they all said or nodded.

Kakashi looked at the Hyuuga, "This stays between us."

Neji nodded hesitantly.

"This is now an Anbu only mission, I vouch for Sasuke. Sakura is an unofficial member, Itachi and I are captains but I am the senior captain and am pulling rank, this stays between us." He said again.

Everyone nodded more firmly this time.

Each took turns sitting with Sakura, each was worried about her. It had taken a lot out of her. She had already used a lot of her chakra that day extracting the poison from the sick villagers. It was clear that the villagers were poisoned to draw Sakura out. Sasori had made it clear he wanted to test her abilities first hand. He had taken some of her blood, no one could come up with a viable theory as to why he might want her blood, only that it couldn't be for a good reason.

She slept through the rest of the day and the night waking the next morning. Shisui and Sasuke were sitting in the room playing cards when she opened her eyes and slowly sat up. She felt weak still but she was hungry.

"How do you feel?" Sasuke asked her holding her hand.

"Hungry." She said and as if on cue her stomach rumbled.

They laughed and Shisui left to go get her some food while Sasuke sat with her.

"Sakura you're amazing, I can't believe you took the poison out of yourself right after a battle, after you worked all morning on the others." He held her hand tight as he shook his head in awe.

Shisui returned with soup and Kakashi.

Her mouth started to water at the sight of the soup. Shisui went to hand her the bowl but she couldn't lift her hand to take it.

"I'll feed you." Sasuke said and took the bowl from Shisui who frowned at him clearly he had wanted to be the one to feed her. Kakashi rolled his eyes and sat in a chair in the corner.

Sakura rolled her eyes and obediently opened her mouth when Sasuke spooned up some soup and held it in front of her face.

"This is stupid." She muttered as he spoon fed her another bite.

Sasuke didn't say anything but smirked as he lifted the spoon to her mouth again.

"So, Sakura, want to tell us what's going on now?" Shisui prompted.

"When we get home. I can't yet, but I will. I need to recover and I need to think. Something, I can't tell you, it might affect things that are supposed to happen, or cause things to happen that shouldn't. I will tell you, just give me a little time, I want to make sure I do it right." She smiled weakly.

Shisui nodded. "I understand."

"Well I don't." Sasuke began but was shushed by Kakashi.

"Let her rest Sasuke, she has been through more than you know." Kakashi was looking at Sakura in a way that made her a bit uncomfortable, like he was trying to figure something out.

Kakashi, Sakura thought, what would it mean to him to know Obito was alive, if he was alive and what he had become, he had little time to process it during the war, what would he do when she told him? Later, she thought, I need to rest now.

Sakura sighed content, the soup had been delicious and now full, she was tired again, her eyes closing on their own. A muffled laugh from the left and she laid back down and fell asleep.

"She really is remarkable isn't she?" Shisui said looking down at her.

"Yea." the others agreed and left Shisui to sit with her while she rested.


	11. Chapter 11

Once they had made it back to Konoha it took a week for Sakura to recover. At her request Itachi took her to the little house he and Shisui used as their home away from home. Sakura loved her parents, she really did but they weren't shinobi and there were a lot of things about her life that they would never understand.

Shisui and Itachi made for good company. One or the other was always around, making her laugh or bringing her books to read. They would come have dinner with her most nights and a new norm settled around her. When it was clear that she was almost fully recovered a sadness could be felt, they all knew their happy little home would soon go back to the way it was before. She would be the first to admit, she would miss it.

They sat at the table eating breakfast on the last day of her recovery, Shisui teasing Itachi that he couldn't cook eggs worth crap for someone who never failed at anything. Itachi grimaced and claimed he only needed more practice.

"I'm going to miss being here all the time but I guess I should get back to my parent's house, I'm sure they miss me." Sakura sighed as she ate her less than perfect egg.

"Yeah and Sasuke has been driving us mad, claiming we stole you and hid you away on purpose just to spite him." Shisui grinned at her.

"I feel bad but I just couldn't deal with everyone and everything after that mission. I feel a lot better now. I assume I will need to clear a few things up for everyone as soon as I get home." She sighed, this wasn't going to be easy.

"It might make it easier to bear the burden, whatever it is. We could help you if we knew what it was you were facing or doing." Itachi reminded her.

"I'd like to go to the memorial stone today, do one of you mind going with me?" She asked as she finished her rice and set her chopsticks down.

"I'll go with you," Itachi told her setting his own empty bowl down on the table.

They stood there side by side both staring at the stone. Again, the names of her fallen from her other life were not etched on there but she ran her hand over the names engraved there and closed her eyes, seeing the names of her own time set to stone and tears slipped down her face. Itachi stood silently by her side and let her cry, he just wanted to be there for her, so she knew she wasn't alone.

"I'm ready Itachi, can you get the others? I'd like to tell them who I am and what I know," She laid her head against the cool rock as the tears flowed down her cheeks.

"I will be right back Sakura." He left in an explosion of crows, one black feather floating down over the top of the rock to land at its base. She picked it up, so much had changed, and so much more needed to change. Asura, Indra, her boys, and their world.

Shisui came with Itachi, Sasuke, and Kakashi shortly after. They stood behind her and waited till she turned, tears still in her eyes trails of wet down her face.

"My men" she smiled at them, "I love you all so much, more than I can say." She bowed to them.

"I wish Naruto were here so I could tell him but it can't be helped." She motioned to the memory stone behind her.

"In my time, in another life, this stone had many many more names on it than it does now. I come here, as you all know and pay my respects, but the names of the loved ones I pay that respect, are not on it this time. I hope to never see them on it, and that is why I killed Danzo, why I will try to find Obito if he is still alive, to change his plan, his mind for the infinite Tsukuyomi with a Madara Uchiha brought back to life, that is why I will hunt down and kill Orochimaru one of the three legendary Sannin, I do it for them, for you, for all of us." She held her hand up to them as they started to speak.

"Please, let me finish, many of your questions will be answered by my telling the truths I am about to tell you, and it is the truth." So she told them. She told them who she was, where she came from, how she came back, what she had done, what she will do. She told them about Obito, how he was found by an elderly Madara, what they had done, their plans for the future.

She spoke to Kakashi when she told him how Madara had set it up for him to kill Rin with his Chidori for Obito to awaken his Mangekyo, how it was all part of one man's aspiration, lust for true peace, a peace built on death, blood and manipulation.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide as she explained how she used to be infatuated with him, loved him with a silly schoolgirl crush that she realized later was shallow and meaningless. How she annoyed him, how he loathed and despised her. How he had tried to kill her and she him. Sakura told them about the massacre, with tears flowing freely, what it did to him and his relationship with Itachi.

She told Itachi how he had fled with the help of Obito claiming to be Madara and the Akatsuki. She explained how she had killed Sasori with the help of his grandmother in her other time and how she had helped bring back the Kazekage Gaara. She told them everything about the war, about Madara, about the reanimated Hokages and nin of all nations, she told them of the allied nations and then she told them of Naruto and Sasuke's deaths and how she was left alone.

How everyone she had known and loved were gone, Ino, Kakashi, Hinata, Neji, everyone.

She hugged herself and fell to the ground, she told them how Kaguya had looked around the battlefield, how she had looked upon the faces of the Hashirama and Madara, how she had touched the faces of Naruto and Sasuke and how she had let her tears fall on Sakura, and how she had sent Sakura back to look after her boys for her sins, and how she had never wanted this, any of this to happen.

Sakura collapsed then, in on herself huddled on the ground in her pain and despair, for those she had lost, for the life she had, she cried and couldn't stop.

Gentle hands pet her and lifted her up to a sitting position. She clung to them sobbing, whoever it was. Her shoulders shook, she had been keeping it in for so long, she hadn't realized how it would feel to let it out, to tell someone.

"Sakura." Shisui held her close to his chest, "Sakura, why didn't you tell us sooner, I realize you couldn't tell us right away but surely you could have told us these past couple years?"

"You didn't need to go through this on your own. We owe you so much, for what you have done. We knew that night you killed Danzo, we didn't know how you knew, but we knew you saved our clan that night." Itachi was by her side now petting her hair while Shisui held her.

Kakashi hadn't moved...Obito might still be alive? He had been manipulated into killing Rin?

Sasuke stood still watching his cousin and his brother comfort Sakura...she had loved him and he had scorned her, tried to kill her? Betrayed the village and became one of Konoha's most wanted missing nin?

It was a lot to take in. Whatever they had been expecting , they hadn't expected this. Well, Itachi and Shisui seemed to have guessed it. For Sasuke and Kakashi, it was still a shock.

"Your skill with a sword?" Sasuke said after some time.

Sakura lifted her head, "Was taught to me by Kakashi Sensei, from my time."

"You bowed to the north, that day I saw you practicing the blade in the woods" A Hatake family gesture.

"Yes." She said simply.

"Your seal of a hundred strength" Sasuke asked.

"Tsunade Senju is my other Sensei, I also learned my healing prowess from her and my monstrous strength." She smiled then, "And how to burn alcohol from my system and gamble, but I have a bit more luck with that than her."

"What about the second seal in the back of your neck?" Sasuke asked her.

"A gift from the Rabbit goddess." She told them.

"Obito, is alive?" Kakashi asked her.

"Yes, he is probably alive and posing as Madara Uchiha, he is the leader of the terrorist missing nin faction called the Akatsuki, in my time they tried to capture all the tailed beasts and started the 4th world war. I have done nothing to change that outcome here except stopping the Uchiha massacre, which Obito helped Itachi carry out in my time, and then took Itachi with him to the Akatsuki. I do not know what impact that had on their plans. Obito is a pawn though, make no mistake. Madara is the one pulling the strings and Zetsu after that but I don't know if Zetsu still exists because he was created from Kaguya's will. Her black will is gone now, so I imagine he is gone now too, but it is unwise to assume. There is a small chance Obito died though, if the will of Kaguya is gone, so is the curse that made Madara manipulate Obito, so...he might have died."

She turned to Itachi and Shisui, "Which might explain why Madara keeps coming to me, maybe his hate is gone. There is too much unknown, I don't know what I have changed more than what I know I have."

"Madara comes to you? Madara Uchiha?" Sasuke asked his eyes wide again.

"Yes, since the land of waves, that night after I killed Gato, was the first time, when I cleaned Gato's blood off of myself in the ocean." She told him.

"How often does he come to you, to see you, does he talk to you?" Sasuke asked her.

"Not as often now as he used to, not since Itachi and Shisui have been around, I am no longer alone as much, but it has only been a week since we have been back, he came to me on the mission and wanted me to go with him into a cave, but Shisui came and he disappeared." She said thoughtfully. "I don't think anyone but me can see him clearly.

"He was just a shadow when I saw him but you said you could see him clearly and I never heard him speak to you," Shisui confirmed.

"I don't like that, what the hell does he want with you?" Sasuke was getting angry now, the stress of the revelation and the news that a ghost Madara was stalking her, he was getting angry.

"I don't know Sasuke." She wished she knew.

"I think the real question is, what do we do now that we know all of this?" Kakashi looked at her, she was a whole different person to him now.

"Yes, but the other question is, are you really 15 or are you 15 plus 16 making you 31 years old and totally legal now." Shsisui winked at her and she laughed while Sasuke and Itachi glared at him.

"I think we need to tell the Hokage. I want to hunt down the Akatsuki and find out if anything has changed if they are still planning on world domination. I will need his permission for a long term mission. Do you think he will believe me?" She looked around at her boys.

"I think we will all go with you, it will help. But if he says ``no?" Kakashi asked her.

"I have to go anyway, I need to make sure. Pein decimated the Leaf, there was nothing left, over half the village's population died that day, there was no building left standing in the whole village." She told them.

"We will go with you to speak to the Hokage Sakura," Shisui said.

"Thank you." She smiled at them.

An hour later they were in the Hokage's office, Sakura retold her story with more confidence and fewer tears. Shisui and Itachi were there, Sasuke and Kakashi behind them. Shisui and Itachi told the Lord third about the night with Danzo, Lord Third had already been involved and knew a lot of it already.

She went over everything she had told the others by the monument. When she was done she stepped back beside Shisui and Itachi and bit her lip. The Hokage nodded a few times asked a few questions about Tsunade and Jiraiya that only he knew to prove her legitimacy. Finally, he said that he could not make such a weighty decision with these facts and called for Inoichi Yamanaka.

Inoichi showed up shortly after and was told why he was needed, Sakura smiled in relief. This would cast aside all doubt if there had been any from her friends.

The Hokage saw the relief in her eyes and smiled. "This will help everyone I think, be at ease Sakura."

"I'm ready." She sat down in the chair provided and closed her eyes.

Inoichi smiled kindly at his daughter's best friend and placed his hand on her head. Images flooded his mind, two lives, lived at the same time, in different times circled round and round. He saw the graves of the Uchiha clan en mass, he saw Danzo die by Sakura's hand in this time and the busy Uchiha clan roads filled with the current Uchiha. Event after event, the Chunin exams of Sakura's time, the Lord Third's funeral, he saw Madara in all his manic glory, the reanimated Hokages. Every event that happened and didn't happen in the current time until they walked into the office moments before his arrival.

Inoichi took his hand from her head, tears slipped down his seasoned, veteran nin face, emotion filled his eyes. "Sakura, you poor girl, what have you been through, the war alone, my child." He wept and he hugged her to him and they cried together in front of everyone.

"She tells the truth then, I thought so, forgive me Sakura, but I had to know for sure." The Third Hokage spoke beside her.

She pulled herself gently from Inoichi who loved her like a second daughter, "I understand Hokage Sama, but now that you know, do you understand why I need to go and find out if I have changed the plans of the Akatsuki, and if I Haven't, why I need to find them and hunt them down one by one?"

The Hokage looked at her then at Inoichi, "For Konoha Lord Hokage." Inoichi said.

"You may go Sakura, but I will choose the team you will take with you. Let me think on it, I will let you know by the end of the week. All of you are dismissed." The Hokage waved them out of his office.


	12. Chapter 12

Two years later…

His body hit her hard and they both went flying, landing in a heap covered in falling sand.

"Gaara!" Sakura screamed for him but he couldn't hear, his sand whipping around him carrying him away from her.

Sasuke lay at her feet, the impact must have knocked him out in his already weakened state.

"He's coming back" Shisui yelled to her and Itachi as they stood ready for the onslaught of puppets and explosives headed their way.

"I told you little girl, I would see you again." Drawled the familiar voice of Akasuna no Sasori.

Sand flew at Sakura knocking her out of the way of two puppets that were flying down on her head , swords drawn.

"Damn it Gaara! Let me fight!" Sakura yelled at the annoying Kazekage. "Stop protecting me!" She roared.

"Are you ready to see true art?" Deidara 's big white bird flies over head round and round dropping little spiders made of clay on them.

"Don't let them touch you!" Sakura yells picking Sasuke's unconscious form up and pushing chakra to her feet trying to run out of range.

"Tsk tsk little girl, where do you think you're going?" Sasori jeers.

Itachi's murder of crows flys at the puppet master and Shisui flickers to Deidara's bird cutting it's head off with his sword.

Clay spiders start to erupt all around them, sand rushes over their heads hardening to form a shield, they hear multiple little explosions over head but they are safe under Garaa's sand.

"Happy for my protection now Sakura?" Gaara smirks at her.

"Show off." She mumbles under her breath.

"Kazekage Sama! Kazekage Sama!" Baki and several other sand nin who were on patrol at the gate were running in their direction.

"Ants! The lot of you, mere ants!" Sasori un rolls three more scrolls and puppets fly from his fingertips toward advancing sand nin.

Gaara sends a wave of sand up to the sky to meet the new army of puppets as Sakura is thrown into the air by Shisui coming down with several well placed chakra infused kicks. Puppet parts go flying.

"Sasori! I'm coming for your heart!" She flys at him head first, arms twisting in the wind to her back ,flipping herself over two puppets he sent to meet her attack, she draws her katana and stabs him straight, right through the core.

Puppets fall all around them, lifeless now that their master is dead.

Sakura pulls the core from his fake body and cuts it in half with her sword for good measure.

Deidara flees, seeing his partner taken down by the little pink haired medic nin, knowing he can't win against her and her team of Anbu Konoha nin and the Kazekage, let alone the reinforcements that have just ran up to meet them.

Sakura kneels beside Sasuke and her hands glowed as she slid them up inside his shirt to check his heart and lungs. Some internal bruising but not bad. She runs her hands over his head and reduces the swelling from the blow he received from one of Deidara's explosions. His eyes flutter open and he sits up straight, turns his head and throws up.

"Nice cuz." Shsisui laughs at him.

"Shut the fuck up Shisui." Sasuke wipes his mouth on his sleeve and apologized to Sakura who shrugs, not like she hasn't seen him throw up before.

"Sakura, why don't you and your team follow us back to Suna, and allow me to give you a proper greeting." Gaara smiled at her, a very small smile on his ever placid face.

Sasuke narrows his eyes at the Kazekage but pushes himself to his feet. Sakura put his arm over her shoulder to brace him, he smiles at her, he doesn't need her help but he likes her this close to him. Sasuke looks to see if the Kazekage is watching, he is. Sasuke smirked at him.

Gaara's eye twitches slightly and he inclines his head to Sakura. The small group make their way to the gates of Suna.

After they had put their packs in their rooms they met in the office of the Kazekage for a briefing of the mission that met them as they approached Suna. No one had been expecting the Akatsuki duo so soon. They had heard rumours of the Akatsuki heading to Suna to take the One tail, in Gaara, the Kazekage but rumors said it would be a few more months, not hours after they entered the Suna desert. They had sent word ahead to the Kazekage of course as well as letters of correspondence from the Lord Third from Konoha.

The alliance between Sand and Konoha had been reestablished due to the many efforts of Gaara and Hiruzen, and after a year of negotiations, trips back and forth they had come to a good agreement for both villages. Part of the agreement was that should any mission bring them close to or into one another's village they would be allowed board and certain freedoms in the villages, as well as any deemable assistance by the Kage of said village.

It had been two years since the four of them had set out. Sakura, Itachi, Shisui and Sasuke had left one week after the Hokage had told Sakura who could accompany her. At first Fugaku was furious that all three of the nin accompanying her would be Uchiha and not just any Uchiha but both of his sons and the two strongest Uchiha currently in the clan, Shisui and Itachi. The fact that Itachi was the Heir to the clan hadn't even come up in comparison.

In the end it was Itachi himself that made the difference, telling Fugaku what Sakura had done for their clan and pointing out if not for her there wouldn't even be an Uchiha clan. Fugaku gave in eventually and with bad grace, but here they were two years later and two Akatsuki members down. Hidan had been rather easy to take down because Sakura knew how to best him due to the fight with Shikamaru of her time and Kakuzu, though much more difficult than Hidan was much easier to defeat than when Kakashi and Naruto had fought him. Shisui had been elemental in that fight with his body flicker.

Now they could add Sasori to the list of the defeated thanks to Sakura and her team's efforts.

Sakura stood before the Kazekage's unwavering gaze with her boys and bowed accordingly.

"You, Sakura, do not have to bow to me, of all people, I owe you much it seems, or have, in another life?' He smiles a most charming smile at her.

"Uh, I'm sorry Kazekage, I do not know what you mean." She replies hesitantly.

"Shukaku tells me you have saved me before, in another time against those same Akatsuki members but the outcome was far worse last time, I died." His look was kind but mild as he continued to look at her.

"Your hair, it is longer now, much more beautiful, and your eyes, they sparkle with life that was not there before...Shukaku tells me. I have to agree with him, you are very beautiful, much more beautiful than I would have thought with such an outstanding reputation and your picture in the Bingo book does not do you justice...Sakura." His deep voice said her name with such blatant intent that her boys shifted in their stances behind her.

"Forgive me Kazekage, you take me at a disadvantage, I was unaware the tailed beasts memories transcended time and space." She bowed correctly , as befitting for a Kage.

"Come Sakura, " Gaara moved from behind his desk to stand directly before her," do not stand on ceremony, call me Gaara, as you used to, in your other life, let us resume our relationship now, that we had before?" Gaara, takes her hand in his and kisses it.

Sasuke steps forward but Sakura stops him with her arm.

"Gaara, yes we were good friends in my old life but we were not as close as Shukaku may be telling you. Forgive my rudeness but I am not interested in you romantically, and never have been." Sakura smiles at him.

"Ah, I wondered, Shukaku seems to like you a great deal, and from what I saw today, you do not disappoint. I invite you and your team to have dinner with me this evening at my house, nothing formal I assure you. Until then, please rest, enjoy my city and call upon me if you need anything." Gaara kissed her hand, the last sentence obviously meant only for Sakura.

They bowed and left the office, Sasuke turning as he shut the door to glare at Gaara one last time.

Sakura laid down on her bed in the room provided, enjoying the feel of the soft cool coverings. She had a room to herself while the boys shared a room. She could almost hear them complaining about it still. Well, not Itachi, Itachi rarely ever complained about anything. She was happy with the progress they had made but was also wary because it hadn't seemed like anything had changed.

Ghost Madara as Sakura had taken to call him hadn't been back to watch or speak with her for the last two years. She thought this was mostly because she was never alone. She was alone now though and she couldn't help but wonder if he would show himself. She had felt eyes on her off and on the past two years and she assumed it was Ghost Madara but she couldn't be sure. An uneasiness passed over her as she felt someone looking at her again. She looked around and saw nothing.

Sakura walked to the large window of her room and opened the sliding door to the balcony. Suna looked just as she remembered it from her other life and wondered if the little curry stand was somewhere out there still. Old Gaara as she decided to call him used to take her there to eat a lot, it was his favorite place. Thinking back, she had spent a lot of time with the Kazekage but to her they had just been friends. Not for the first time in this life did she realize how naive her old self used to be. Maybe he had thought they were more.

Sakura sent out her chakra and found all three of her boys were in their room lounging around so she hopped onto the rail of her balcony and jumped down onto the second story roof then the 1st story and then the street. It was around lunch time, she would go see if her favorite curry stand was in this Suna.

It was! She smiled as she stood in line waiting her turn. Her mouth watered as she placed her order, the little old crone behind the counter giving her an odd look. Sakura was used to it, not only was she a foreigner but she had pink hair and green eyes. Gaara had green eyes but they were used to him...well, more used to him than to her.

The woman handed Sakura her food and she did a little hop of excitement only to turn around to find the amused face of the Kazekage looking at her. She blushed, it was very embarrassing.

"Uh, this is my favorite place to eat, I was just um, excited." She blushed deeper at his growing smile.

"It is my favorite place as well, allow me a moment to get food for myself and I will join you, if you have no objections?" Gaara moved past her before she could reply and placed his order.

He turned back to her while he waited for his food to be prepared and smiled at her again.

This Gaara smiles a lot more, is much more expressive. I wonder what changed to make this change, she thought to herself as she watched him. She blushed again as she realized she had been staring at him...but he had been staring at her too so it wasn't rude, was it?

The old lady called to Gaara and handed him his food in a bag just like Sakura and Gaara stepped up close to her, taking her arm in his and flickered them away to the Old East Gate, looking out over the desert. She hadn't realized she had expected him to do that, like the Old Gaara used to do until he gave her a wide smile at her lack of reaction.

"Uh, in my other life you um, used to do that a lot." She was blushing again.

"It seems we did used to be close then, I would not do that with someone I didn't trust, and I trust very few." He told her.

"But, you don't know me here, I mean in this time, how can you trust me?" She protested.

"Shukaku tells me we have a close history, that we were very close, I trust him." Gaara said simply.

"You trust Shukaku?" She said stupidly, obviously he did, the way he talked.

"Is the Gaara of your time not in cooperation with his tailed beast?" Gaara asked curiously.

"Uh no, not at all in fact, he often lost control and almost killed me once. Before I left, he seemed to be in more control but then the Akatsuki dragged the Shukaku out of him and that's how he died. You know all of this though don't you?" She raised an eyebrow at him...he was teasing her!

"Yes, but I like hearing you speak, you have such a lovely voice Sakura." He patted the top of the wall beside him.

She sat down and opened her food bag pulling out her fried liver and curry sauce, the same as him.

"I see you have good taste." he pointed to her dish.

"You knew we would get the same thing, we always did." she smiled at him, it was almost like having the Gaara of her own time there with her, it was familiar, and comforting.

"So we did. Do you find it hard to live this life when you have had the other, does it not blend together sometimes?" He asked her.

She smiled at him, she had forgotten how much she enjoyed talking to him, he was so intelligent, it made for good conversation.

"Sometimes, if the people are too similar, it hurts, I remember them as they were and if they died in my time, it hurts to be reminded of them, if we were close. Sometimes though, the differences are too great. People who are dead and gone and have been since I was a child the first time are alive and well here and it makes me happy. Others, well, that chose a dark path in my time, are now in the light here and it makes me very happy to see it, to see them happy." She turned to him then. "Like you, it is good to see you whole and smiling."

"Thank you Sakura. I know we are strangers in this life but because of Shukaku, I feel as though I know you, and that were are already close." He put down his chop stick and caressed her cheek with the back of his hand leaning forward.

Her eyes went wide when she realized what he was about to do and she stood up, almost spilling her dish over the wall of the gate.

"Gaara, you mustn't." She looked at the ground in front of them.

"Why? You kissed me once before , remember? Then." He stood and stepped to her.

When did Gaara get so bold! Her thoughts were racing. When had she kissed him...oh! That was , well...a mistake!

"Kazekage, you were never so forward, you used to be so shy." She argued.

"Shukaku told me, I am aware. I knew I had to be bold this time, and when I saw you, you were as beautiful as Shukaku described, more so." He reached for her but she stepped back and in her haste fell off the wall.

"I got you." Shisui caught her before she hit the ground, her dish and her lunch falling past them hitting the sand below.

He jumped back up onto the wall where Itachi and Sasuke were glaring at the Kazekage.

"What the hell were you going to do to Sakura?" Sasuke was asking the Kazekage angrily.

"Sasuke, stop, it isn't a big deal." Sakura tried to calm him down.

"I was going to kiss her." Gaara said much to Sakura's annoyance.

"Like hell you were!" Sasuke was yelling now and Itachi looked like he agreed.

"Hey, you are speaking to the Kazekage, do you want to start a war?" She was getting angry.

"Easy guys, nothing happened right flower?" Shisui looked at Sakura who nodded. "See, nothing to worry about guys come on let's calm down." He cast the Kazekage a warning look and Gaara nodded.

"Fine but Sakura is coming with us, she doesn't need to be alone with you." Sasuke said loudly.

"I see you are just as much as a spoiled little brat as you were in Sakura's other time Uchiha." Gaara laughed at Sasuke.

"What?" Asked Itachi.

"Shukaku, his tailed beast, remembers me, and both lives and interactions." Sakura explained.

"I don't want him to touch you!" Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her now.

"So this time around it is him who loves you and you do not love him? Interesting." Gaara was taunting Sasuke.

"You are more devious than I remember you being in my time Gaara, what else about you has changed I wonder." She said not in a flattering way.

"Care to find out?" Gaara gave her a once over with his eyes and grinned at her looking much like the crazed maniac she once feared.


	13. Chapter 13

She had grabbed Sasuke by the collar of his shirt and flickered back to the room he shared with Shisui and Itachi, where he ranted and raved about Gaara till the others joined them and he ranted some more. She left him practically foaming at the mouth and went to lay down in her own room. She had only eaten half of her lunch before it had ended up face down in the sand and she had to admit she was more than a little hungry still.

She lay on her bed with her eyes closed and tried to will away the headache she knew was coming. A gentle breeze floated over her and she looked to the sliding glass door she had accidentally left open earlier when she had gone to the market. Sliding out of bed she walked to the window to close it when a small basket floating on sand met her. She picked the basket up and opened it, finding figs and dates and small puddings inside, she smiled.

"Thank you, Gaara." She said to the sand that immediately began to swirl and form into the Kazekage.

"Forgive me Sakura, I came on too strong and annoyed your teammates. I really hadn't meant to cause such a fuss." This was more like the Gaara she remembered.

"There is nothing to forgive, I apologize for Sasuke, he is very protective of me." She blushed again.

He found it fascinating watching her blush before him, he knew not to reach out to touch her face again but he wanted to, badly.

"I ruined your lunch and did not want you to go hungry until dinner. My behavior earlier was unacceptable, please forgive me." He was sincere.

He must learn to control himself, he hadn't realized it would be so hard. The beast inside him kept urging him to claim her, make her his mate forged from feelings from this other life. He took a step back from her, he needed to put some space between them.

"Thank you, the figs look delicious, and I love pudding." She smiled and looked at the basket of treats.

"I know, I remember, or, Shukaku remembers. He seems to remember a lot about you. We must have been close in the other life for him to know so much about you?" Gaara is asking her, not just making a statement.

"Well, I stayed with you for a time, to help after a small conflict in your country. I helped set up your hospital and trained a few of your doctors. We spent a lot of time together." Sakura looked away from him unable to make eye contact.

There had been something between us, he thought, she won't even look me in the eye.

"I'm glad we were friends, I will leave you to your rest. See you at dinner this evening Sakura." And in a swirl of sand, he was gone.

Sakura went back to laying on her bed, this time with a fig in her hand. She peeled the green skin of the fruit off and placed it on a napkin then bit into the ripe goodness. Her mouth filled with sweetness and she closed her eyes in bliss. If she would have opened her eyes and looked out the window she would have seen two red eyes looking in on her from the shadows of her balcony.

After her small snack, she curled up on her bed and took a little nap. She dreamed of Gaara, the old Gaara and how they used to spar together, and get lunch at the market stand, and eat on the East Gate wall….she had enjoyed her time in Suna before, had enjoyed the company of her friend the Kazekage.

She woke from her nap, memories fresh in her mind like the one night, some foreign nin had come through the village, all their papers had checked out at the gate, they were who they said but that night at the bar, everything had gone wrong.

Sakura had been out with Temari and Kankoro, Gaara's brother and sister, he was going to meet them there after he finished his paperwork. Temari had been flirting off and on with a guy at the bar and he finally came over and made his move leaving Sakura and Kankuro to their own devices. Not ten minutes later a long haired, long legged vixen walked by and Kankuro had left Sakura sitting at the table alone and walked after her.

Sakura hadn't minded so much, she was capable of taking care of herself and Gaara would be there soon, so she had sat there sipping her drink and waited for him. A half hour went by and two foreign nin entered the bar looked around and made for her table. One sat down while the other introduced himself as a nin from Iwa, wanting to know why such a beautiful woman was sitting at a table by herself.

She had blown them off and told them she was waiting for someone. The one who had sat down without asking scooted closer to her on the bench and told her they would be happy to keep her company until her friend got there. She had taken his hand that was creeping up her bare leg and broke it with a snap, telling him as he screamed, she was fine and didn't need the company. His friend, taking exception to his friend's broken hand, had pulled a kunai on her. She laughed, deflected the pathetic attack and had thrown him through the window of the bar. He had landed at Gaara's feet just as he was about to enter.

Gaara did enter the bar then, only to find a huffing Sakura, dress ridden up over her thighs, hair sticking out and red in the face...with rage. The foreign nin whose hand had been broken ran out of the bar, picked up his friend and they ran out of Suna as fast as they could.

The bar had erupted in applause after their hasty departure and Sakura was the subject of many toasts and offered drinks. She had been quite drunk that night as she stumbled back to her room on the arm of the Kazekage. He was almost as unsteady as she was having matched her drink for drink. They got to her room and shut the door. Her back up against the door for support, Gaara holding onto the wall so he didn't fall over.

She remembered sliding down the wall when her knees gave way and him laughing at her as he watched. It had been the first time she had heard him laugh. She had reached her arms out to him asking for help, he had moved in front of her, arms reaching down and pulled her to his chest, he had pulled her too hard and she hit his chest, sending them tumbling backward onto her bed, with her on top of him. He had kissed her then, slow and deep.

Sakura touched her lips remembering. It had been her first kiss. She didn't know if it had been Gaara's or not, but she thought it might have been. She frowned, it had been her first and only kiss actually. She laughed at herself. She had killed S-Rank missing nin, fought a world war, gone through time...but had only kissed one man? Even if it had been the Kaze kage ...still only one man?

"Ugh." She moaned, she was pathetic.

Knock Knock

"Come in." She called out, she knew it was Shsiusi.

He came in, saw her laying haphazardly on her bed in a depressed state and asked her what was wrong.

"I was just remembering things from, before. I kissed the Kazekage in my other life." She said slowly.

"Was it any good?" Leave it to Shisui not to be surprised, not to scold her but to ask how it was.

She laughed, "I can't say really, it was my first and only kiss. I have nothing to compare it to." She flopped back down on the bed spreading out like a starfish.

Shisui laughed and laid down beside her, "Well, maybe your next one will be better flower." he picked up a lock of her hair and twined his fingers through it.

"You've become a very beautiful woman Sakura." Shsiusi said lowly as he watched her hair flicker in and out of his fingers.

"Yeah, a lot of good it will do me. I'm so busy I don't have time to date much less spend more than two days in the same place for anyone to notice me." She huffed.

Shisui chuckled, "Oh flower, you have been noticed, believe me Sakura, you have been noticed, not only by the Kazekage but others closer to you."

He kissed the lock of hair he had been playing with and watched her face as realization dawned on her. He smiled a wicked smile, "I did tell you I would wait didn't I?" He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers, barely touching, and then drew away sighing.

"Shisui." She leaned toward him her hand reaching out to him but he took her hand in his and patted it.

"Sasuke is coming." He sat up on the end of her bed and waited for the knock.

Sasuke didn't bother to knock, he just walked right in."What are you guys doing?" he asked and sat down on the bed next to Shisui.

"Well, I was resting till everyone decided to come into my room, even though your guy's room is much larger," Sakura complained.

"Why is your door open Sakura?" Itachi asked as he knocked on the door frame and came into the room.

"Sasuke never shut it." She sighed and rolled over because Sasuke was trying to lay down on her small bed taking up more room because he was bigger than her.

"Get off my bed, your hogging it, go lay on your own bed damn it." She pushed him and he fell onto the floor.

"Urgh!" Sasuke grunted as he fell off the bed.

Itachi was looking at the basket on her table. "Is this pudding?" Itachi held up a small glass jar.

"Yes, feel free to have some, there are two more jars in there." She knew how much Itachi liked sweets.

"Mmm." He already had the jar open and was inserting spoon after spoon of sweet goodness in his mouth.

"This looks homemade, where did you get it Sakura?" Itachi was fingering the cloth lining of the basket.

"Um, Gaara dropped it off to me, because my lunch is now buried under the sand by the East Gate." She waved a hand to the east.

"He is quite taken with you isn't he?" Itachi frowned at the basket and put the empty pudding container down, picking out another from the basket and opening it.

"Don't eat all of her pudding Itachi, what will she tell him when he asks her if she liked it, that you ate it all?" Shisui laughed at the guilty look on Itachi's face as he ate another spoonful of pudding looking away feigning innocence.

"Why is he giving you baskets of food?" Sasuke was glaring at her from the floor that he hadn't bothered getting up off of.

"I told you because mine went over the wall." She didn't want to argue about this anymore, it was stupid.

Sakura got up off of her bed and went to the balcony sliding glass door aside and stepping outside. She smiled as she took a deep breath. Suna, it smelled the same. She heard a crash from the inside of her room and turned to see feathers flying everywhere...crow feathers.

"Itachi! Get those crows out of my room!" She was stomping towards him when he disappeared taking his crows with him.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys? Why is there a broken jar of pudding on my floor?' She glared at Shisui and Sasuke.

"Itachi got to eat two jars, I only wanted to taste it, but he wouldn't let me have it," Sasuke said lamely as he started to clean up the mess.

"You don't even like sweets Sasuke." She huffed, "Man...I wanted that too ...urgh."

"I'll get you some more I promise, I'm sorry." Sasuke dropped the jar of ruined pudding into the trash and backed out of the room.

Shisui slid off the bed and walked over to her, she was staring at the broken jar of pudding in the trash.

"I will ask the Kazekage where he got it and see if I can't get you some more. Until then," Shisui leaned down and kissed her gently, running his tongue lightly over her lips. She brought her hands up to his chest and spread her fingers apart leaning into his body.

"Shisui." She pulled back a bit.

"So now that you have something to compare it to…?" Shisui grinned at her.

"You are better, much better." She smiled and he bent his head to kiss her again when there was a knock at the door.

Shisui grinned, "You have company." He said as he stepped away from her.

Sakura opened the door to her room to find Gaara there with another basket.

"Oh! Gaara, how did you know? Or did you know Itachi ate my pudding and Sasuke broke the last jar?" She smiled at the basket as she took it from him.

"I know everything that goes on in my village." Gaara looked at Shisui as he said this and Shisui grinned not at all ruffled by the Kazekage's pointed stare.

Gaara turned back to Sakura, "I will see you at dinner." and he left.

Dinner went surprisingly well. There weren't any snide remarks from Sasuke, Shisui kept the sarcastic jokes to a minimum, Itachi was his normal polite self and Gaara was charming, which was very different than what Sakura had been used to in her time. The food was good, the company had been polite and she lay on her bed in her room happy.

They couldn't stay here long but they thought another attempt on Gaara might be made and they didn't want to leave until Konoha recon got back to them on a few other Akatsuki tails. Sakura wasn't complaining, it had been a hard two years, constantly on the move. It was nice to stay in one spot, even if it was only for a few days.

She stretched out on her bed enjoying the softness of it, a rare luxury. She had put on an actual nightgown tonight since she wasn't sleeping outdoors. Moonlight flooded into the room through the sliding glass door. She stood in front of it looking up at the moon. She hoped Kaguya was happy with the progress she has made so far. She was thankful for the gift. Naruto had returned to Konoha from training with Jiraiya and would be meeting up with them soon. Kakashi and Yamato had been working on a new training regimen for him and were anxious to get him started on it.

Sakura yawned and turned back to her room, her bed and froze."Madara."

"How are you my dear?' Ghost Madara asked her as he sat on her bed.

"Are you a ghost?" She asked him.

"No, not a ghost but I am no longer a man either." He looked sad.

"Am I the only one who can see you?"

"Yes." He said.

"Why?"

"You are the only one I allow to see me." He told her

"Why me?" She asked him

"I got sent back with you, not by choice, but because you have changed time. You aren't supposed to be here, none of them are." Madara said.

"Who?"

"The Uchiha, and all the others you have saved or inadvertently spared from grief and death." He sighed.

"You can't leave?" She was confused.

"No. We are connected now, I can not leave. We are bound together for eternity." He smiled at her. "It could have been worse, I could have been bound to Obito, he is not as pretty or as interesting as you my dear."

"I'm flattered." She said dryly.

Madara continued to smile at her. It was an odd expression on him...to her. He looked nothing like the crazy maniac who tried and succeeded in killing everyone she loved.

"I am not the same person I was Sakura, the Curse of Hatred was broken." He looked out the window at the moon, "Her black will is no more, Zetsu is dead, because of you, because she sent you back."

"But then, why are you stuck here, can you not move on in peace?" She still didn't understand.

"I am here because you are here. The seal, the gift she gave you, Kaguya sealed my chakra inside of your seal, after you killed Gato, you were finally strong enough to release the seal entirely, the one the Rabbit goddess gave you. I could not show myself to you before that. In a way, you released me too." He smiled again.

Madara Uchiha really was a very handsome man.

-when he isn't laughing like a loon and killing people-

"How is it you look no more than 25 years old?" She asked him

"Izuna died by the hand of Tobirama when I was 25, that is when the curse of hatred began to control me. I assume that I regressed back to the former state, before the curse. I have no other explanation for you love." Madara said sincerely.

"How come you never told me any of this? You just watched me and spoke rarely, it was so creepy." She accused.

"I did not wish to startle you. I apologize.' Madara was looking at the moon again.

"Can you ever return, be whole again?" She asked.

He hesitated, sad eyes turn back to hers and a small smile graced his lips, "Yes, but at a cost, and it is not for me to pay."

"Who pays it? What is the cost?" Sakura asked.

"Be careful of the Kazekage, he is not in control of his beast as much as he thinks he is." He avoided her question and disappeared.


	14. Chapter 14

Gaara paced back and forth in his room restless after dinner. It had taken more than a little control to keep from taking her hand or brushing the hair back from her face. He had stopped himself from grabbing her and pulling her into a kiss as they said goodnight to one another outside her bedchamber. He had wanted to follow her into her room and kiss her again as they had in that other life, the one Shukaku tormented him with, the one where he was happy.

She, didn't flinch when he looked at her, she didn't look at him with eyes of fear like all the others, she was different. Shukaku whispered to him over and over that he needed to claim her, there was no one else for them, that she was their mate and that if he passed this opportunity up he would regret it. Gaara tried to reason with the beast, telling him in this life they were little more than strangers, that they hadn't kissed and she would get frightened if he tried to be too forceful.

Shukaku had laughed at him, shown him images of their kiss in her other life, how she had clung to him when he teleported them using his sand, how they would eat together, talk for hours together, but mostly, how she wasn't afraid of him, like everyone else, like his siblings still were. He wanted that connection desperately, he craved it and so did Shukaku.

Gaara stopped to look out his window to the room she occupied. He could see her standing by the sliding glass door window in her nightgown, the moon casting her in an eerie glow. He could see the outline of her figure in the light and he swallowed. She was more beautiful than the images Shukaku had tormented him with before her team's arrival. He had known for weeks before they came by missive of the Hokage. Shukaku had practically started dancing in his skin with excitement at seeing her again. If the Akatsuki hadn't attacked him right before they came he might have done something foolish like jump on her and kiss her by way of a greeting.

She had been so tantalizing in battle. Weaving in and out of Sasori's chakra threads with such grace and skill, her monstrous strength, her hair flying in the hot sun. Her deadly precision...she had killed a S-rank missing nin, Akasuna no Sasori with one hit. Yes, he was enthralled by her. He continued to watch her through his window as she turned around back into her room. He saw her shoulder stiffen, was someone in there with her? Shukaku immediately urged him to go find out and dispel anyone that dare to be in the same room at night alone with their mate.

Sakura isn't our mate yet Shukaku,he scolded the beast, she doesn't feel the same about us I don't think. Gaara's mind went to the Uchiha, one Uchiha in particular. He had felt Shisui in her room and had gotten a basket together for the purpose of interrupting them. The only Uchiha in their other life hadn't wanted anything to do with her or was a S-rank missing nin, he hadn't had any worthwhile competition. This time he did. He reached his senses out, he could feel something in her room with her but not a man, nothing living. How odd he thought.

Before his rational mind could stop him he teleported into her room as a shadow faded from her bed.

"Sakura, sorry for disturbing you but, was there...was there something in here a moment ago with you?" Gaara asked her looking around her room for the Shadow he had seen a moment after his arrival.

"No, nothing is here Gaara." Nothing was there, Madara had gone the moment he sensed Gaara's approach apparently. She moved and sat down on her bed.

Gaara stood by her bed not moving, his face steady but drawn in on itself.

"Shukaku is talking to you isn't he?" She asked him, he had always had this look in his eyes when the beast used to talk to him, she had noticed it before, at the Chunin exams.

"Yes, it is difficult around you, I have control around everyone else but he seems to be pushing me more forcefully around you, he wants to reestablish the bond you had with your Gaara, from your time. He has shown me the images of before, of your other life with the other, me." Gaara hesitated, should he tell her he saw the kiss, that he knew it wasn't just a light touch of lips, that it would have been much more if Naruto hadn't burst through the door interrupting them to announce his arrival to take her home?

Yes! Shukaku urged him, Yes! Tell her you know, tell her you know she had deep feelings for you before and she will again, just remind her what you mean to her, our mate, we need our mate!

Gaara shook his head, he couldn't concentrate when Shukaku yelled in his head like that.

"Gaara? Are you okay?" Sakura looked at him with worried eyes biting her bottom lip.

Please, thought Gaara, stop, I'm not in control, I don't want to hurt you.

Sakura infused her hands with green chakra and slid her small deft fingers over his temples and closed her eyes pushing the chakra into his head easing his torment...a flash of teeth! A massive body, huge tail swishing back and forth! Dark black and yellow eyes stared back at her in her mind!

"Hey! Sweetheart!" Shukaku crowed at her

"Shukaku!" She scooted back up the bed to get away from him, not Gaara, but Shukaku, the lust the danger, it was palatable. It made her shiver.

"Sakura, I'm sorry, he, he is hard to control when you are near me and when you touched me, he tried to reach out to you, through your chakra." Gaara felt guilty, he hadn't meant to scare her. She had looked at him with fear in her eyes, just like everyone else.

Sakura saw the dejection in his face, "I am not scared of you Gaara, only the beast inside of you, he tried to kill me once remember?"

Gaara nodded, he knew, Shukaku had told him. "I know." He said quietly. "I'm sorry Sakura, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'll go now, sleep well." He got up to leave, Shukaku yelling at him in his head, telling him he was a fool, that now was his chance, they were alone and a bed was right there, he needed to claim her. Gaara shook his head to clear his mind. The worst part was, Gaara did like her, he did want her, but he knew the beast was being too bold, it was too soon. Gaara wanted a relationship, not to slack his lust.

"Gaara, please, I'm sorry, it isn't your fault, it is Shukaku's. I didn't really get to know you till he had been pulled from you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to react like that." She smiled at him, biting her lip a bit nervously and placing her hand on his arm, looking up at him with those beautiful green eyes, sparkling in the moonlight.

"I have to go before." He brought a hand to his head as if in pain, "Before I can't. Goodnight Sakura." He used his sand to teleport back to his room.

Sakura walked to the window and looked out across the way to the Kazekage's bedroom. She saw him run his hands through his hair and fall back onto his bed. Turning back to her bed she lay down and closed her eyes, thinking of her other life. There was nothing to go back to even if she could, all her loved ones were dead.

Sleep finaly found her. The faces of her past flittered through her dreams. Moments of her life flashed in and out of her feild of vision, when one was gone another took it's place. She could feel herself waking, someone was calling her name. A vision of Madara and Hashirama flashed before her eyes, they were on the Hokage cliffs facing the village, she was behind them. They turned and both of them smiled at her each holding out a hand. "Thank you for looking out for us Sakura."

Her eyes snapped open. "Madara."

Ghost Madara sat ont he corner of her bed looking back over his shoulder at her.

"They are coming, be careful love."

It was early, Sakura had left her room at dawn and gone to the market for breakfast. She sat outside of a little market stand drinking coffee and picking at her oats and dates when Shisui plopped down beside her grinning.

"Morning little enigma, sleep well?" He ordered some oatmeal and coffee for himself.

"No, Madara came to see me last night when I was alone." She told him.

"I'm not surprised, I thought he might. It is the first time you have been alone in almost two years. How did it go?" He asked curious.

"He told me he wasn't a ghost but he wasn't a man, that the Curse of Hatred had been broken when Kaguya felt remorse and her black will subsided. He said we are bound to one another for eternity, that he can't leave because the seal Kaguya put on the back of my neck, is his chakra. I asked if he could ever be whole again and he said he could but at a great cost and that it wasn't his to pay." She told him everything.

"Wow, you have Madara Uchiha's chakra in a seal on the back of your neck? Incredible." he said.

"Where are Sasuke and Itachi?" She asked him.

"Itachi is probably in your room eating your pudding and Sasuke is training in the training grounds. I came to find you to ask you if you wanted to train after breakfast." He smiled at her.

"That is a great idea! I have a lot of stress to get off my chest." She spooned a bite of oatmeal into her mouth and ate with more enthusiasm.

They met Itachi on the way to the training field and they walked down the side street of the Suna's main office building on the way to the training grounds.

Gaara stood by his window in his office and saw that they were headed to the training grounds. He disappeared in a whirls of sand and set down not far from Sasuke Uchiha who had been there training since dawn.

"Good morning Uchiha." Gaara greeted Sasuke politely but was ignored as the others walked up.

There were smudges under her eyes, she hadn't slept well, he could tell. Shisui greeted him with a wave and Itachi with a nod of the head.

"We have come for a little training, Sakura needs some stress relief. Nothing like a good workout to get rid of stress." Shisui smiled at them.

"Come." Itachi took Sakura by the hand and they made their way to the center field. He called forth his crows and she dodged them per their usually work out for the last two years. Eventually the crows turned into senbon and they swarmed her in streams of flying black, she dodged and wove and jumped to avoid them.

Itachi walked off the field and Shisui took his place. He and Sakura smiled at one another, this was a new game for training they had come up with in the last few months. Shisui pulled a small red ball out of his pocket and threw it in the air. Sakura flickered to the ball threw it and Shisui flickered caught it, threw it. Within five minutes of the start they were passing over 15 little red balls back and forth between their flickering bodies all over the field. It was amazing to watch.

Sasuke had stopped to watch them but as they came to a stop he pulled out his katana and walked out onto the field to join Sakura as Shisui walked back to stand by Gaara and Itachi.

Sakura drew her sword and without warning ran and slid around Sasuke coming up behind him thrusting her left arm out, sword straight, he sidestepped and swung back around with his right hand, sword bent and she blocked it with a chakra infused hand. He turned parried, ducked thrust and back again dodging her blow to the arm.

They danced around the field back and forth up and down for an hour before she called it quits. She was tired from lack of sleep but she felt good. She sheathed her sword and walked with Sasuke back to the others.

"I'm tired, I'm going to get cleaned up and take a small nap. I'll see you guys later ok, thanks for the work out." She smiled .

"Perhaps after you get some rest or maybe after dinner tonight you would consider sparing with me Sakura." The Kazekage said in his low deep voice.

Sakura smiled, "I would like that Gaara." She waved goodbye and walked back to her room.

Shisui turned to Gaara after Itachi and Sasuke had started back for their room, "I know you were in her room last night."

"I know you kissed her." Gaara said not looking at him but in the direction of Sakura's room.

"This is a different time, she doesn't know you here, now." Shisui said kindly.

"Do you think love carries an expiration date? Love transcends time." Gaara said quietly.

"You think you love her?" Shisui said with surprise.

"I don't think, I know." Gaara countered.

"Well get in line, you're not the only one." Shisui laughed.

Gaara smiled at him then, "I noticed."

"Is she different, this time, than before?" Shisui had wondered that before but , before the only person he could ask was Sakura.

"Yes, she is stronger, more confident, wiser...but she was always remarkable." Gaara smiled to himself, "and beautiful."

Shisui and Gaara walked back to the Suna offices. Shisui stopped with Gaara before he left to meet the others in their room.

"Was Sasuke like she said, was he, did he lose his way? Last time?" Shsisui asked Gaara slowly.

"The Uchiha had a loneliness, a deep hatred in his eyes, the need to prove himself consumed him and took him to some very dark places, that even a tailed beast would not want to go." Gaara told him.

Shisui nodded his thanks and left.

Sakura sat on the wall of the East Gate eating her market food. She had given strict orders this time around that she was not to be followed under any circumstances, that she wanted to be alone. It was so peaceful here, she looked out to the sand shifting in the desert and sighed.

"Back again I see." Gaara said as he sat down beside her ont he wall.

"Did you know how much he admired you, how much he loved you, the other me of your time. You were the first to trust him after Naruto, the first non jinchuriki to look at him without fear, to smile a real smile at him." He stroked her hair back from her face and let his hand fall to her neck, moving slowly behind her head playing with her hair.

"You look at me the same way, without fear of the beast and see the man before you. Did you love him Sakura? Did you lie to me when you said there was nothing between you? You forget, Shukaku showed me all the memories you shared with him, then." He ran his fingers through her hair and brought his hand back up around the back of her neck, waiting for her to answer, waiting for her to pull away. She closed her eyes.

Sakura opened her eyes to see Madara standing over them, she screamed. Gaara leapt up, his sand arcing around them in defense but he didn't see anything.

Sakura and Madara were looking directly at one another

"Sakura, what is it?" Gaara was talking to her but she only had eyes for Madara who stood beside the kazekage smirking at her with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Having fun my dear?" He said in is low sultry voice. "Why waste your time with this boy, you need a man." and he faded away out of sight.

Gaara was at her side,trying to get her to focus on him . Her eyes were blown wide in shock and she seemed to be staring over his shoulder at something he couldn't see.

"Sakura!" Gaara gripped her arm then, and she turned to him.

"Ga...Gaara, I'm so sorry. I ...I saw a ghost. I, I'm sorry." She stammered. Madara had never come to her when anyone else had been around, why now?

As if his presence hadn't been ominous enough a flock of perfectly white birds flew over head, the strangest birds she had ever seen.

"Gaara, what kind of birds are those?" She pointed to the sky.

He looked up over his shoulder to where she had pointed, "Those aren't birds, we need to get back to Suna, those are the Akatsuki bombers birds!" She stepped up into his arms and he teleported them back to her room just as dawn broke over the sand.

Alarms started going off all over Suna.

"I have to go, meet me by the market with your team." He said as he disapeared in a cloud of sand.

Shisui broke in through her door a moment later, he gave her an odd look as he took in her messy hair and wrinkled clothes. "Suna is under attack, it looks like the Akatsuki are back, come on!" and he pulled her out of her bedroom door.

Itachi and Sasuke were waiting for them in the main hall.

"Gaara said to meet him in the market." Sakura told them and teleported to the market, Shisui right behind her, then Itachi, Sasuke, who couldn't teleport showed up a few moments later.

Gaara was commanding his Anbu to protect different parts of the village and to make sure the civilians were safely hidden underground. His brother and sister took their teams to the front gate to minimize the attack if possible.

Sakura and her team stood by the Kazekage knowing their best chance to take down the Akatsuki was to stand by their target.

"Sakura, I want you to go with the civilians, protect their escape, and see them safe into the caves, you know where they are. Let your team and I handle the Akatsuki." Gaara said without looking at her, his eyes following the birds that were quickly approaching his village.

"What? No way, my place is here with my team!" She planted her feet firmly on the ground , she wasn't going anywhere.

"Sakura please, I can't bear to lose you." He was begging her.

Shisui's head whipped around to look at Sakura, "What happened last night?"

Itachi and Sasuke were looking from her to Gaara, their looks growing darker by the moment.

"Not now! We have other things to worry about idiots!" She snapped her head to the sky, "Here they come!"

Gaara flew up into the air on a sand tornado and spread his sand wide over as much of his village as he could and hardened it with his chakra as the birds began to dive bomb into buildings and schools.

Sand nin jumped into the rising sun deflecting the remaining birds as best they could only to have them blow up in their faces, falling back to the ground bloody or dead.

"Deidara." Sakura whispered, looking for his signature big white bird, there, it was coming from the gates of the city, where were the other two sand siblings? Were they hurt?

A thunderous rushing sound filled their ears. Sakura and Shisui turned to the other side of the village opposite the gate and their eyes went wide.

Kisame Hoshigaki, had used his Water style, Exploding water shockwave,where the user spits out a great volume of water from their mouth, swallowing up and crushing the enemy with the advancing surge, and it was coming straight for them.

Gaara used his sand to lift him to the top of his office building in the middle of Suna, Shisui and Sakura had teleported away and Itachi disapeared in a murder of crows presumably to some where safe. Where was Sasuke.

Shisui saw him first, clinging like mad to a low level building, trying to fight against the impossible current. His one hand gripping the roof with a chakra infused fist. Shisui teleported to him and tried to help pull him out of the rapidly growing mass of water threatening to engulf them both, when Deidara seeing their struggle swooped in and let drop hundreds of little clay spiders that exploded all around them.

"NOOOOO!" Sakura screamed and teleported to the nearby roof she had last seen Shisui and Sasuke at, she clung to the roof with chakra to her feet and scanned the area frantically, they were nowhere to be seen.

Itachi was on one side of the village fighting Kisame Hoshigaki, and looked to be handling the shark man with ease, it was only a matter of time. Gaara was flying through the air with his sand from rooftop to rooftop, not able to use his and in the ocean that was now his village.

Sakura teleported to the only opening in the village where the current flowed out into the desert, the main gate. She scanned the bodies of the dead that floated by searching for their chakra signatures.

There! She saw them Shisui had Sasuke in his arm, holding him against his chest, trying to ride out the current. Sakura teleported to them and used her Earth style earth rampart and they flew into the air on a mountain out of the ocean. Sakura bend over Sasuke, he wasn't breathing. She focused the chakra to her hands and drew out the water in his lungs. He still wasn't breathing. She reached into his chest with her healing chakra and tried to stimulate his heart to beat and his lungs to draw air.

A pulse, rapid and faint. She pulsed her chakra into his heart with every beat until they came stronger and stronger.

Shisui knelt beside her emotion cast upon his face, terror, guilt, and fear.

Itachi was by their sides, he fell upon his little brother, "Sasuke! SASUKE!" she had never heard Itachi scream before. It was horrible.

"Sakura help him, you have to save him...Sakura!" Itachi was begging her, tears ran down her face as she stared at him dumbly shaking her head.

"I'm trying, let me concentrate!" She snapped at him.

Itachi's eyes flashed red, "Isn't it your job, wasn't he why you came back?!" He was screaming at her, his eyes started to bleed and his tomes spun. Mangekyo sharingan.

A high pitched cackling could be heard as Deidara looked down on them. Itachi rose to his feet, and disappeared in a murder of crows and reappeared on the back of Deidara's flying white bird.

Two jumping spiders flew from the bombers hands at Itachi's face, Itachi send his murder to meet them head on. Smoke engulfed them and they couldn't be seen for a moment. The wind changed whipping the smoke to the side.

Itachi's hands moved faster than Sakura had ever seen them move, Deidera took a two palmed hit to the chest and went flying off his bird.

"Amaterasu." Itachi whispered and teleported away, back to Shisui and Sakura.

Deidara screamed above them falling to the desert, they watched as he fell outside of the city, nothing would be left, not even ash.

"His heart is beating, but he hasn't woken up. He might have sustained a head injury. I need to check him more thoroughly but I am low on chakra. We can't stay here. If they come back, if the village is attacked again, he might not make it." She told them

Gaara dropped down beside them, fists clenched at his side. "I'm sorry." Was all he could get out.

"We need to take him home, to Konoha." Itachi picked his little brother up.

"Itachi, be careful with him!" Sakura began

"Do not talk to me." Itachi said and disappeared.

Her eyes opened wide in shock, "He blames me."

"He will come around, knowing Itachi, he blames himself." Shisui put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll see you by the gate, he will want to leave immediately."

"Sakura." Gaara reached out for her hand but she drew back from him.

"I have to go." and she teleported to her room to pack.

They met at the gate 30 minutes later. Gaara was waiting for them.

It was a somber goodbye. Sakura gave Gaara a quick hug and stepped back and away from him. He didn't pressure her but told her he would write, she had nodded, and her team turned and left Suna, left the sand to go home, to the forests of Konoha.


	15. Chapter 15

Her feet touched down outside of her bedroom window. The journey back to Konoha had been a depressing one. No matter how much Shisui tried to reassure her, she was sure, Itachi blamed her for Sasuke if not before, he certainly did now. Sasuke had yet to wake up from the Suna attack.

Sakura had healed him as soon as some of her chakra had been restored. Itachi had demanded she release her seal to heal him fully and wake him up. She had tried to explain it was only for emergencies. He had argued that she had two seals, she could use one for his brother. Shisui had stopped her just as she was about to release her seal on her forehead.

A fight broke out between the cousins. Shisui told Itachi he was being selfish, that Sasuke was breathing, Sasuke was alive, that Sakura had done everything she could. Itachi's words still haunted her.

"It isn't enough." Itachi had said.

Never enough. No matter how strong she was, no matter how many Jutsu she knew...it was never enough.

She dropped down onto her bed face first. The Hokage had been understanding, pleased they had killed the Akatsuki, commended them on their progress and told them to go home to rest.

Sasuke was in the hospital now resting, Shisui had followed Itachi home with promises to her to look out for him. She had dragged her feet, willed herself to leave the stairs of the Hokage tower after they had left her. What could she do? Nothing. That is what hurt so much. Nothing, she could do nothing more than what she had already done. Sasuke would either wake or he wouldn't.

She sighed into her pillow and rolled over. Dark eyes watched her from the side of her bed. She hadn't even felt him sit down.

"Madara." She mumbled out her half hearted greeting and rolled over onto her side.

"Sakura, it wasn't your fault. The boy is not dead after all, there was nothing more that you could do. You saved his life. He would have drowned and he would have died if you hadn't been there. Itachi knows this, Shisui is right, he really blames himself for not being able to protect his little brother...I understand him, I blame myself, for my little brother, Izuna." Madara said gently.

"Izuna?" She sat up and looked at him. History didn't have a lot to say about the little brother Uchiha. Madara's strength and tragedy outshone any of his siblings.

"What was, what was he like?" She asked curiously.

Madara smiled, "He was a lot like Sasuke, always trying to catch up to me like Sasuke tries to catch up to Itachi. He loved, he was a very affectionate child, a weakness in an era wrought with war in every aspect of a young life. He was my brother."

Sakura smiled faintly, the first time in three days.

"Izuna was my world after our other two brothers died for our selfish war, our parents long dead, we only had one another. It is not the same for Itachi and Sasuke but, the bond is there I can see it. Itachi blames himself, he will come to you eventually, he is an intelligent shinobi." Madara acted like he was going to say more but stopped.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Sakura? Are you home? Come down for dinner dear!" Her mother called through her door.

Sakura sighed and got up to change her clothes pulling her shirt up and over her head, glancing a narrowed eye to Madara who was still sitting on her bed.

Madara grinned, "Don't mind me dear, please continue."

"You're not really here, you're just a ghost." She said and pulled down her pants.

He watched her change her outer clothes with mild interest and said, "I am a ghost but I am not a ghost. What you see is my will, imbued by the close proximity of my chakra trapped in that seal the Rabbit gave you. I am not a ghost, but I am still a man."

"Who can not touch me, who watches me and speaks only when it is convenient for you. You may not call yourself a ghost but you haunt me." She watched him as she tied her hair up in a knot at the top of her head.

"I told you, we are now bound for eternity. I can not touch you now," He said raising his hand, " but that might not be the case, forever. I told you, I can be regenerated completely, it just comes at a very dear cost, one that is not mine to pay. It's yours." He said as his hand passed over the nape of her neck, a shiver ran down her spine, it was cold.

"Mine?" She asked him eyes widening.

"To get something, you have to give something." His hand passed over the seal on her neck again. A look of unmasked longing passed over his features. His eyes rose to meet hers and she shivered again. So intense was his gaze. There was a cold feeling, a lightness to his touch, yes, she could almost feel his fingers pass over her seal.

"What do I have to give?" She asked him, lips parted slightly as she met his gaze.

"You're not ready yet, now is not the time." Regret passed over his features.

How remarkable she thought. This man, this being, was so very different than the Madara she had met, was the curse that strong…

"I'm, um, I have to go. Will you, are you going to be um, will I see you later?" She asked not meeting his eyes.

"Do you want to see me later?" He asked her a small lift to the corner of his mouth.

"Yes." She said, her hand on the doorknob to her room.

"Maybe you will then." He smiled at her as she huffed in response to his less than committed statement.

"Damn Uchihas" She muttered as she shut her door behind her.

Madara remained on her bed for a moment looking around her room and then out her window.

"Yes, we are damned, my dear. Damned indeed." Madara said to himself. He turned and looked at the door she had just gone through, he would need to hurry if he was going to make it back in time to see her before she went to bed. He leaped out of the window.

Sakura dragged her feet slowly one after the other up the stairs to her room. Dinner had not gone well. Her parents knew something was wrong, that something had happened to her mission and they had dragged it out of her. Like always, they didn't understand, they weren't shinobi. She had sat there while they lectured her over and over saying the same thing only changing the words. The meaning was clear, they wanted her to quit, they wanted her to take up her part in the family business, be a merchant. No, she was a shinobi. It was time she got her own place. She was old enough, she made enough money from missions. She would visit Sasuke at the hospital in the morning, then look for an apartment.

She turned the knob to her bedroom and opened it slowly dragging her body through the door with her eyes closed. She sighed and walked to her bed, just as she was about to fall over sideways onto it a hand reached out and grabbed her arm twisting her so she landed to the right, instead of on top of them.

Her eyes flew open and she pulled two kunai from her pouch as she landed in a sitting position beside Itachi.

"What the hell, what are you doing sitting in my room, in the dark?" She glared at him putting her kunai back into her pouch, he had startled her.

"I'm sorry." Itachi said, his head bowed to her.

"It's ok Itachi, I understand." She patted him on the arm.

"No, I shouldn't have blamed you. Forgive me." Itachi persisted.

"I forgive you." She took his hand in hers, leaning sideways against her pillows.

He had to lean over to accommodate her positioning which brought his thigh against hers and the tail of his ponytail to tickle her arm.

"I need to look for an apartment after I visit Sasuke tomorrow, come with me?" She asked.

"You want to move out of your parent's home? Why?"

"They just, I love them, it's just hard. When something happens, like what happened in Suna, it's just hard to be around them, they don't understand, they aren't shinobi. It is just better If I move out." She sighed.

"Shisui will want to come too." He pointed out to her.

"We can all visit Sasuke in the morning then go look together, will you let him know when you get back to the compound?"

"Hn." He replied.

"Thanks Itachi, I think I'll go to bed now, I'm tired. It's been a long day. Thanks for coming, I'm glad you're not mad at me anymore. I really did do everything I could." She sat up and smiled at him.

"I know you did Sakura. Thank you for always looking out for us, for my little brother, for all of us." He hesitated for a second then leaned over and put an arm around her giving her a quick side hug.

"See you tomorrow." And he jumped out the window to the next roof.

She laid back down on her bed, this time the right way since Itachi had left and closed her eyes. She was relieved. She understood why he had been mad but it was a relief to know he wasn't blaming her anymore. Sasuke's coma was hard on all of them. Itachi blaming her had just made it that much harder on her and even Shisui. She hoped Sasuke would wake up soon. Her thoughts drifted as she fell asleep.

Madara watched Itachi jump out of her window and waited before he joined her in her room as promised. He had never had much competition for women's affections in his time being the heir and then clan head. He had been annoyed mostly and ignored the female attention that smothered him then. He had never felt jealousy or possessiveness, never noticed women or cared for them much. There was always one around when the urge had hit him, always one around when he wished for female company for a festival or event. None had been strong enough or clever enough to really interest him. Sakura, was different. She was beautiful and she was clever, but the feeling in his chest, was not jealousy for the current Uchiha heir, it was not possessiveness that he felt when he watched Shisui kiss her in Suna. He didn't know what it was, only that it bothered him greatly.

Sakura woke to a small cold feeling moving slowly down the side of her cheek to her neck, up her cheek and across her lips. Her hand moved up to her mouth covering it lightly as the cold slipped around her hand encasing it.

"Sorry love, I didn't mean to wake you." Madara's voice came to her in the dark of her room.

Sakura opened her eyes to a nearly dark room, the moonlight dimly stretching across her bed where Madara sat beside her leaning over her with one arm holding his weight up by her waist, his other hand around hers on her mouth.

"Madara." She spoke softly, sleepy still.

He smiled down at her. Her eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

"I came back, like I said, sorry if it is a little later than we had previously agreed upon." He stroked her hand with his fingers lightly.

Sakura looked down at her hand. "It's cold, when you touch me, it feels cold like mist over my skin." She smiled a little at the thought of the great and powerful Madara Uchiha made of mist and vapor.

"I can stop if you like. It has been a long time since," He paused. "Since I touched someone without drawing blood, or to inflict pain of some sort."

"When was the last time?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

"Long before I died, long before Izuna was killed by Tobirama." He said looking out of her window at the moon, his fingers tracing the joints of her fingers.

"Madara." She started to speak.

"You know," He interrupted her." You are the only one besides my brother and Hashirama who has ever called me by my name without some form of honorific or title attached to it. I like it." He looked at his fingers on her skin and smiled.

She forgot what she had been about to say and watched him trace his fingers up and down her own.

Silence fell between them. It was a peaceful silence. With Itachi's forgiveness and her own she felt calmer. Madara seemed content just to touch her hand in a lazy soothing sort of way. She closed her eyes and snuggled back into her pillow, it was nice to have him beside her, she wasn't alone.

"Thank you Madara. For just being here, it is nice not to be alone." She smiled as she drifted back off to sleep.

"It is." He said simply and sat there beside her while she slept till dawn.


	16. Chapter 16

Sakura woke the next morning feeling more relaxed than she had in years. She stretched in her bed reaching up above her head as far as she could while stretching her legs and toes as far down as she could. It felt wonderful. She took a deep breath and relaxed back into the softness of her covers for a moment enjoying the peace she felt and then got out of bed and dressed.

She was brushing her hair when there was a small knock at her window. She had felt them drawing near as she had dressed. With one last swipe of her brush, she set it down and grabbed her headband. Itachi and Shisui waited for her to tie her hair back with her headband and jump out her window.

Neji met them by the steps as they approached the hospital. "Sasuke is awake and asking for the three of you. Kakashi is already with him."

Sakura ran up the steps with Shisui and Itachi. Kakashi was sitting by his bed when they entered.

"Sasuke." Sakura dropped down in the other chair by his bed and took his hand, "I'm so glad you're awake. I'm so sorry Sasuke."

"What are you sorry for, it was my own dumb ass that put myself in such a dangerous position. I should have known better." He squeezed her hand in reassurance.

"I hit my head pretty good I guess. They said I had two different terrible concussions, that I had water damage to my lungs and that the only reason I am still alive is that you saved me. Thank you, Sakura. It seems like you're always looking out for me." He smiled at her.

"Man, you scare the crap out of us kid, we were really worried you weren't going to wake back up." Shisui said from the right side of the bed where he was standing.

Kakashi had given his chair to Itachi when they had entered moving back to the wall to give them some space. He had his usual book out and was immersed deeply in the world of Icha Icha.

"Sasuke, are you sure you're okay?" Itachi asked his little brother earnestly.

"Yes, sorry I worried you. I am okay, a little dizzy and nauseous but I will be okay, maybe just a little more rest and 'll be back to normal."

"Hn." Was all Itachi said but it was enough. Sakura could tell he was holding back, the relief evident in the small upturn of his mouth as he looked at his little brother.

"So, tell me," Sasuke said sitting up a little straighter in the bed." What happened, Kakashi didn't tell me much, only that they are dead and we came back home."

"Well, yeah, they are dead and we brought you home to recover, you were out for over a week Sasuke." Sakura told him.

"Is there any news on the Akatsuki? Do they know it is the Leaf that is responsible for killing four of their members?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know if they know it was us or not this time. The two Akatsuki who died, Deidara and Sasori. I'm sure they have their spies but if they were there at the time they didn't try to help them." Sakura said.

"I'm sure they know, if they didn't have a spy there or not. Word about this kind of thing will travel fast. Merchants talk." Shisui smiled at Sakura.

Sakura remembered how her parents had known before she had even changed out of her clothes when she had gotten home. Merchants do indeed talk. That means, yes, they knew that Deidara and Sasori were dead and that it was Leaf nin who had done it.

"They will go after the One Tail again." Itachi said.

"Should we not go back to Suna then, to help make sure that doesn't happen." Sasuke said looking from his brother to his cousin, to his friend.

"I think they might try to hit the Leaf next, Naruto is expected back any day now and they have a reason more than ever now to attack us." Shisui said.

"I agree." Sakura said and Itachi nodded.

"The Hokage knows Sasuke is awake, he will be putting a plan together I'm sure." Kakashi told them.

Sakura had almost forgotten he was still in the room.

"You're right, we will just have to wait." Sakura said.

"In the meantime, I need to find my own place. You get better Sasuke and when you get out I will make you dinner in my new apartment." She smiled at him and his face lit up.

"Yeah?" Sasuke said and grinned.

"Yeah." She smiled at him.

"That would be great Sakura." He smiled at her as she pushed her chair back to stand up.

"If you don't mind Sakura, I would like to stay here with my brother." Itachi said to her as she made her way to the door.

"Of course Itachi, I understand, Shisui, did you want to come with me?" She asked him.

"Sure flower, I'd love to pick an apartment out with you, one bedroom right?" He winked at her.

Sasuke frowned at his cousin and Itachi hid a smile from him.

"Har har Shisui." Sakura laughed as she opened the door. "See you soon Sasuke, bye guys." She waved to Itachi and Kakashi and walked out the door followed by Shisui who also waved.

By mid afternoon Shisui and Sakura had found her a nice little affordable one bedroom apartment. It wasn't big and it wasn't special, but it was affordable which Sakura liked and it was safe which Shisui liked. It was also a little way out of the main hub of Konoha more toward the Uchiha district which they both liked.

Shisui and Sakura sat in a small dumpling stand celebrating her newest accomplishment with a plate of dumplings and a cup of tea.

"Congratulations flower." Shisui grinned at her. "Want me to come over and help you break in your new bed?" He winked at her.

"It is going to be my old bed just in a new room Shisui." She was used to his silly pointless flirting by now.

"Fine, want me to come by and break in your new room tonight then?" He winked at her again.

"Relentless." She poked him playfully in the arm.

"Only with you blossom." He said playfully.

"I will stop by the hospital later to visit Sasuke and tell him my news but I want to go home and tell my parent's first and start packing." She said popping the last dumpling into her mouth.

"Sure thing flower. I'm going to head over there now to check on him. I'm glad Itachi came around sooner than later." He patted her on the head, paid their bill and left.

Sakura made her way home slowly thinking over the best way to tell her parents she was moving out, had a lease, and that it would be immediately. This wasn't going to go over well. She sighed, no use dragging it out. She opened the front door to her parent's house and said "Tadima." For the last time.

Her parents had taken it even worse than she had anticipated. They refused to let her take any of her furniture with her saying that it didn't belong to her. She took out her storage scrolls and put her clothes, toiletries and books in it, sealed it and put it in her bag. All of her ninja gear she had purchased, they had refused to contribute to a profession they hadn't approved of. She stood looking at her room, the room she had dreamed of becoming the shinobi she was now in, when she had been just a tiny little girl, turned and walked out on her childhood forever.

Sakura had stopped by the market on her way to her new apartment and picked up some small items such as vegetables, rice, chicken and noodles. It was odd shopping for herself. She had purchased food for the team on missions, gone to markets before of course but there was something different about buying it for your own refrigerator, for your own home. She smiled as she paid for her things and walked to her new home.

Another change hit her when she unlocked the door to her apartment and walked inside shutting the door. She had said, "Tadima." out of habit but there was no one there to greet her. She laughed a little at her foolishness.

After she had taken the few possessions she had out of her storage scroll she looked around her home. Her mission bedding was in her bedroom on the floor, her toothbrush and things were in her bathroom, her clothes were hung in her closet and the newly purchased food was in the kitchen. She laughed. She had no couch, no tables, no chairs, no TV, nothing to decorate with. She smiled though, because it was hers, all hers. She spun on her heels in the middle of her new living room and giggled to herself.

She allowed herself another small smile before leaving her new apartment to see Sasuke.

Kakashi was there when she arrived, as were Sasuke's parents.

"Oh Sakura dear! So good to see you, glad you're back and well. Thank you for taking such good care of Sasuke. Itachi tells us that if it wasn't for you, he would have died." Mikoto hugged her tightly to her and kissed her head.

"I wish I could have done more, I'm sorry he slept for so long and that I didn't visit." She felt guilty, she hadn't even had the guts to tell them what had happened herself. Itachi had been so upset with her that she didn't think she could bear it if they too had been upset with her.

"Nonsense." Fugaku said from beside his wife. "We know you did everything you could."

Sakura nodded trying to hold back any tell tale tears.

"I hear you moved out of your parents house Sakura." Kakashi announced.

"You already found a place?" Sasuke asked .

"Yes, this afternoon, a few hours ago, Shisui helped me find it, it's small but affordable and it's mine." She said proudly.

"Always good to have your own place, that way when you come home from a mission covered in blood you have less explaining to do." Kakashi smiled at her.

"Yes, my mom never did get used to that." She laughed a little.

"Congratulations Sakura, 17 years old is certainly a normal age for shinobi to get out on their own." Fugaku said kindly.

"Is there anything you need dear?" Mikoto asked her. "We will get you something to celebrate your new place, a picture for the wall maybe?"

"Oh no, please, thank you but that is too kind, there is no need." Sakura blushed.

"I want to come over as soon as I get out of here, you said you would make me dinner remember?" Sasuke said pointedly in front of his parents.

"You did?" Mikoto's eyes were sharp.

"As friends." Sakura corrected any misunderstandings.

Sasuke frowned,"Still, you said you would."

"I will, once you get out, but you need to rest now. I just wanted to tell you my news and see how you were." She told him.

Mikoto hummed a bit, "We will go now and let you two be alone. Congratulations on your new place Sakura, I hope to be able to see it once you get settled in." She winked at her and tugged on her husband's arm.

"Good night Sakura, Sasuke." He patted his son on the shoulder and smiled at the pink haired girl. He and his wife left them alone...with Kakashi who was still leaning against the wall with his book out.

"I'll be going too, glad you are feeling better Sasuke, you should be out by tomorrow right?" Kakashi slipped his book back into his pouch.

"That's what they told me." Sasuke grumbled. "I don't see why I can't leave right now, I feel fine."

"Ah well, listen to your doctor Sasuke, they know best after all." Kakashi eye crinkled at him.

"Says the man who escapes out of his hospital room dripping blood and leaving a trail all the way back to the door of his apartment…." Sasuke says darkly.

"Well, that's me not you. I'm special." Kakashi smiled and disappears in a puff of smoke.

Sakura shakes her head but is smiling. With The room now empty but for her and Sasuke she pulls the chair by his bed out and sits down. She tells him about her new apartment which doesn't take long.

He laughs at her, "Only you would move out to get away from your parents with nothing but your ninja gear and books."

"I had to leave, they were smothering me, they don't understand." She said in her defense.

"They are civilians Sakura, of course they don't understand our life style, the missions, what we do, the blood." He says to her.

Sakura raises her head, she can feel Itachi and Shisui coming.

"Itachi told me what happened after I fell and didn't get back up. I'm sorry he gave you a hard time Sakura."

"It is okay, I understand why he felt that way, why he acted like that. We are good now though, he told you that too right?" She asked.

He nodded," yeah, he told me."

Itachi and Shisui opened the door and walked in, Shisui with his signature grin and Itachi looking as placid as ever.

"Hey there flower, how is the new place? All moved in? Do you need any help?" he asked.

"Nope, didn't have a lot to move I'm all settled in, you two are welcome anytime, just come over whenever you want." She smiled.

"Well, not whenever they want, right Sakura? It isn't proper for them to come say, in the middle of the night or something." Sasuke mumbled.

"They know what I meant silly." She tapped him on the head playfully.

"Just make sure you don't say that to Naruto when he gets back to the village, he already came by your window day and night when you lived with your parents, don't be surprised if he asks to move in with you now that you have your own place." Sasuke laughed.

"True, I'll have seals in place though, I'm not worried." She smiled. "I'll be going now though, I'm tired. See you tomorrow Sasuke, if you get out before dinner time, send me a message." She waved and left his room.

"Dinner tomorrow?" Itachi asked his brother.

"Sakura said she would make me dinner at her place when I got out of the hospital." Sasuke said smugly.

"I think you're reading too much into it Sasuke." Shisui warned the younger male.

"You're just jealous, I see they way you look at her, both of you." Sasuke looked from his cousin to his brother.

"I'm not going to deny that she is beautiful and incredibly talented, not to mention dangerous and that's really hot but, she is also a good friend and I respect her, I think I speak for both of us." Shisui said looking at Itachi who nodded.

"She is still young though, I don't think she really looks at us that way yet, romantically. She has other things on her mind than romance. You remember what she told us, who she is right?" Shisui asked him.

"How could I forget, it was startling." Sasuke said.

"Which is why Shisui is telling you not to read into it too much, she sees us as friends and family, not romantically. I think Shisui is right, she has things she wants and needs to do before she can even think of romance, for the people she left behind, the ones who died." Itachi said.

"The ones whose names aren't on the memorial stone, the ones she hopes never to see there." Shisui added.

Sasuke felt a little guilty and a little selfish. "I didn't think of it like that."

"That's because you're a little twerp." Shisui grinned and ruffled his hair. Sasuke tried to smooth his spiky hair down and glared at his cousin.

Sakura unlocked the door to her apartment and said ,"Tadima." again out of habit and then frowned. She had forgotten there wasn't anyone to greet her again. Shrugging she went to her bedroom and set her bag on the floor next to her bedding. Looking around her empty room she sighed and made her way to the kitchen where she started making dinner for herself.

Halfway through cutting the carrots for her fried rice she felt a cold across the back of her neck.

She turned quickly, "Madara." She smiled.

"You look happy to see me love, I see you have a new place." He looked around.

"Kinda bare isn't it?" He gestured to the empty living room and sparse dishes in the kitchen cabinet.

"My parents were less than pleased about my moving out and didn't allow me to take anything but my ninja gear with me." She shrugged and turned back to cutting her carrots up.

"I'm not surprised, they are civilians after all. They would always complain about the silliest things." He mused as he stood beside her watching her cut up carrots.

"What did they complain about in your time?" She was curious, and it was nice to have someone to talk to.

"They didn't like the nin running across the roofs of their homes and businesses, complained it was too loud." He smiled at her drop jaw expression.

"But, but, we don't make any noise! We are ninja!" She huffed.

"Exactly, silliness." He grinned.

She laughed and slid the cut carrots into the pot of cooked rice and stirred it. She added sesame oil to the pot and some thin sliced green onions and two eggs then set the fire to medium, stirred, then put the top on the pot and turned back to face Madara who had moved to look around her home.

He was inspecting the sliding glass door. "This isn't made very well, you need to get this fixed, anyone could just slide this open." He raised his hand to touch the lock but his hand went right through it. He frowned.

"If I had a physical body I could fix this for you." He grumbled.

"If you had a physical body, I wouldn't let you in here with me." She smiled at him.

"You don't trust me?" He grinned at her, his teeth were somewhat pointed, he looked more like the maniacal Madara she remembered from her own time.

"Honestly, I don't know. You are right, what you said before, you're not the same Madara from the one I first met on the battlefield of the 4th shinobi war. You are more, kind and sweet." She said carefully.

"Sweet?" He raised an eyebrow to her.

"I might not be a bloodthirsty warmonger set on world domination anymore but I am not sweet." He shook his head as if in disgust.

"Yes you are." She teased and laughed at his facial expressions.

"I am one of the most powerful shinobi in history woman, I might not possess the physical prowess I once did but I assure you, once I get my physical body back I will show you I am anything but sweet." His eyes flashed red.

"I wasn't trying to insult you, I'm sorry." She waved her hand dismissing his ire."I only meant, well, if I'm honest, it is nice to talk with you sometimes."

He watched her, his arms across his chest slowly relaxing to his sides, as a tinge of red crept up into her cheeks. She was blushing at him. He looked away and out the window again.

"You need furniture." He stated the obvious, changing the subject.

"Uh yes, but it will have to wait. I paid for 6 months rent in advance and just had enough left over for groceries for a few weeks." She was a little embarrassed and hoped Sasuke wouldn't laugh at her when he came over for dinner tomorrow.

"Your rice is burning love." He said bringing her out of her head.

Had he been staring at her while she stood there thinking? She wondered as she headed back to the kitchen to stir the rice. It had been burning...she spooned some into her bowl and took it outside to eat on her balcony that overlooked the forest. Tapping her chopsticks to even them out on her leg she started eating while Madara sat down on the floor of the balcony beside her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him but added after a steely look from him, "I'm not complaining, you just, you never used to stay and talk with me for any length of time, it seems like, lately you have been more, talkative, I like it." She said shyly.

"You are easy to talk to." He said shortly.

Feeling like he may have been unnecessarily gruff with her he added," you are the only one who can see me remember? I find it scares most people to hear a voice talking to them that they can't see who or where it is coming from."

She giggled into her hand,"What did you do?" Her eyes were filled with misschief and he couldn't help but grin back.

"When I first came back with you, it was, well, it was a bit of a shock. It took me a while to figure out what had happened and my connection to you. It took some time for me to even voice my words, you had to get stronger for me to get stronger." He smiled," I walked up to a woman in the market demanding to know what year it was, clearly it wasn't the same Konoha as the one I had left moments ago. She screamed and dropped the cake she had been holding and ran off calling the name of who I can only assume was her husband." He rolled his eyes and smiled faintly.

"It wasn't funny at the time but, well, it was the second time. I did it on purpose." He laughed then.

She was dumbfounded. She had never heard or read about Madara Uchiha having a sense of humor before. They had left that out of the history books. She couldn't hold it in anymore, the look on his face, he had played a practical joke on a stranger in the market. She burst out laughing almost spilling her friend rice on her lap.

"It wasn't that funny, well maybe a little." He ducked his head sheepishly but couldn't stop grinning.

"You are adorable!" She laughed and put her hand on his arm. He looked down at his arm where her hand was.

"Sakura." He said quietly.

"What is it?" She asked wiping tears out of her eyes from laughing so hard.

"Your hand." He said.

She looked down. Her hand hadn't passed through his arm, she was...touching him.

She gasped and pulled her hand back. Their eyes met and she smiled nervously.

"Is that, uh, supposed to happen?" She asked him.

"I'm not sure, can I try something?" He asked her a look of hope and longing in his eyes.

"What?" she asked not taking her eyes off of his.

"I want to try to touch you, to see if I can." He asked her.

She nodded her head. He raised his hand haltingly to her face. His fingers flexed into his palm then extended out again hesitantly. He ran the tips of his fingers along the side of her cheek briefly, then pulled his hand back.

"Did you." he started.

"Yes." she said quickly.

"You felt it, you felt my fingers?" He breathed in.

"Yes." She said eyes wide.

He let out the breath he had been holding.

"Could you, feel it, my face?" She asked.

"Yes." He said.

"Madara, what does this mean?" She asked him.

"It means, I have a second chance, it means everything is going to be okay." he was astonished. "I have to go." and he disappeared, leaving her alone on her balcony with her rice.

Sasuke leaned forward coughing. His chest hurt. Where had this pain come from? He lay back down when the coughing had stopped and put his hand to his chest. The pain had stopped but it had felt like it had been right over his heart. What the heck was that? He wondered as he closed his eyes. He opened his eyes after a few deep breaths and continued eating his dinner brushing it off.


	17. Chapter 17

Bang Bang Bang

Sakura opened her eyes. "What the hell."

Bang Bang Bang

She gets up off of her sleeping pallet and stumbles to her door. It took her a moment to remember she was in her new apartment.

"Good morning sunshine!" Shisui the Annoying Uchiha grins at her with a huge box in his arms.

"Good morning Sakura," Itachi calls from behind his cousin, he too has a box in his arms.

"What are you guys doing?" She steps aside and lets them in.

"Mom sent some things over for your new place Sakura." Itachi tells her as she sets the box down in the middle of the living room and pulls out a storage scroll. She walks over to him and looks in the box...it is full of scrolls.

"What are those for?" She asks.

"You, of course, you didn't think Sasuke would keep quiet after you told him your parents wouldn't let you take anything with you did you?" He scoffed at her and pulled a storage scroll from the box he had brought in.

"Wait, are all of those scrolls storage scrolls?" She asked her mouth dropping open after.

"Of course, mom says a lady needs choices so we dug through the storage scrolls and brought these." Itachi said as if this were a common occurrence.

"I picked out most of the good stuff when I got my own house but I left a few cool things." Shisui told her, maybe it was a common occurrence.

"But I was going to buy stuff when I could." She protested.

"Sakura, you're like family, don't be ridiculous." Itachi frowned at her.

Shisui and Itachi began making hand signs over the scrolls and by the time they were done she had an apartment full of furniture.

There was a nice double large bed, desk and dresser for her bedroom. Lamps, nightstand, and pictures were set and hung for her.

Shisui pulled out dishes, cookware and dish cloths for her kitchen that matched. Itachi filled her bathroom with towels, mats and soaps. Her living room had lounge chairs a couch and a TV. They hung pictures and artwork for her on the walls.

She sat on her new couch looking at the Uchiha clan symbol now adorning the wall behind her TV.

"I'm not an official Uchiha, am I allowed to have that in my home?" She asked them.

"Of course you are an official Uchiha Sakura, don't be silly." Shisui ruffled her hair.

"It's not like you're not going to be an official Uchiha eventually anyway." Itachi said as if it were obvious.

"What?" She asked him turning to face him.

Shisui facepalmed. Itachi just opened and closed his mouth once and tried to backpedal.

"I mean, you are family since we were little since Sasuke brought you home with him after you first day at the academy." He said quickly.

"Auntie sent you these clothes too, want me to hang them in the closet or did you want to look through them first?" Shisui asked her tossing her the storage scroll.

"I'll do it." She said and went to the bedroom carrying the scroll with her.

"Smooth." Shisui hit Itachi over the head gently.

"We all know it is going to happen, she will marry one of us eventually you know it as well as I do." Itachi said in his defense.

"Yeah she probably will, but not if you say stupid shit like that, she will marry someone else just to spite us, you know how stubborn that woman is." Shisui countered.

Sakura heard them arguing from her bedroom. She unsealed the scroll and a jumble of folded clothing appeared before her. Some formal kimonos some regular kimonos, some battle kimonos. Were they all kimonos? She wondered.

She dug through the pile and found pants, and other smaller more delicate clothing, a few dresses, some under kimono clothing. A Lot of the outfits were very pretty and not overused. She shook out a dark red and black short kimono with pants. It had the Uchiha clan crest on the back, she grimaced a bit. She liked the clan crest but she felt odd wearing it since she wasn't a true Uchiha.

She matched the pants and tops and hung them together in her closet, folding the undergarments and putting them in the dresser. She kept out the dressing kimono to wear for bed.

Shisui and Itachi's voices had gotten louder but stopped abruptly as she entered her living room again. She looked from one to the other.

"What's going on?" She asked them.

"Nothing, just arguing." Shisui said quickly without elaborating.

"Uh-huh, everything okay?" She asked Itachi.

He nodded.

"We are going to go get Sasuke after this, want to come with us?" Shisui asked her. "We are taking him back to the compound with us and getting him set up to rest at home, he will still come for dinner tonight but his mom wants to make sure he still rests as much as he can till he is 100 percent better." Shisui smiled at her.

"Of course I'll come with you. I have to stop by the market anyway. I can do that on the way back from the compound." She said absentmindedly.

"Didn't you open that other scroll Sakura?" Itachi pointed to the scroll on her kitchen counter, clearly unopened.

She went over to the scroll and unsealed it. Fruit and vegetables, meat and fish appeared before her. Bags of rice and dried beans appeared, bottles of fruit drinks, sodas and milk appeared.

"This is too much, was this your mom's idea?" She asked Itachi.

"It was my dad's. He said he knew we would be over nonstop so it was best if we brought this with us as not to burden you." Itachi smiled at her as she picked up a fish and put it in her refrigerator.

"This was so kind, so unexpected, everything, thank you, I'll make sure to thank your parents when I see them." She could almost cry. These people, her friends, her shinobi family was taking better care of her, cared for her more than her real family did.

"Sakura?" Shisui came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist hugging her to him "Are you okay?" he asked gently.

"Yes." She said, "I know that I had a family before, and that this family here is different but it was also my family if that makes sense. It hurt when they basically turned their backs on me. The Uchiha, in my time, they, it was different, you were all gone. It is such a shame, such a waste. Look at everything you have done for me, all of you." She said quietly.

"I don't understand how things ended so differently in this time." She added.

"They wouldn't have if you hadn't killed Danzo, or the Akatsuki that we killed." Shisui said letting her go.

"Even Madara, you said he is different now, he isn't consumed with hatred." Itachi said.

"We are all here because of you Sakura." Shisui said gently.

They had gotten Sasuke home easily enough and set up in his room. Sakura thanked Fugaku and Mikoto for their generosity. They both hugged her and told her they were proud of her.

Her and Sasuke left the compound for her apartment a little after 4pm.

"Why did you tell your mom about my parents and that they hadn't let me bring anything to my new place Sasuke?" She asked him as she opened the door to her apartment.

"I wanted you to be comfortable, we have lots of things just sitting around in storage scrolls, everyone in the clan uses them." He said.

"I'm not an Uchiha Sasuke." They were in her living room now.

Sasuke looked around, and saw the Uchiha clan crest on her wall behind her TV,."Looks like you are to me." He grinned.

"Shisui put that up when I was in the bedroom putting the clothes your mom gave me away." She protested.

"Well, you'll be an Uchiha one day so it doesn't matter, does it?" He asked her.

"Why does everyone keep saying that to me?" She asked him.

"Who says that to you?" Sasuke asked.

"Itachi said I was going to marry one of you eventually and that it didn't matter if I was an official Uchiha at the moment or not because I would be in the future." She glared at him. "Who decided that without asking me first?"

"We love you. I figured we just kinda adopted you as one of us. I love you." Sasuke said. "Why wouldn't you marry one of us, me in the future?" He asked her.

"Marriage is the last thing on my mind right now Sasuke." She warned. "I have too much to do still."

"I know, but when that is done, you will want to marry eventually right?" He said gently.

"Maybe, I don't know, I never thought of it. I have only thought of saving my village and the people I love." She said. "That's all I want to think about right now." She ended the conversation.

"Time to start dinner." She walked into the kitchen.

"I've lost focus. What happened in Suna really scared me." She said to herself.

Sasuke had left a little after dinner. She knew he had wanted to stay longer but she needed to think. Now that he was better she needed to focus on what was really important. Her mission she had given herself, to change the future of the time she found herself in.

She ticked the events off in her head.

Uchiha Massacre, tick.

Akatsuki, semi tick

Was Obito still alive, she needed to find out.

Orochimaru, needed to be eliminated.

"You look pensive love, anything I can help you with?" Madara's deep voice spoke to her from the seat next to her on her couch.

"Why did you leave last night after I touched you?"

"I apologize, it was, a small shock." He replied smoothly.

"It was a shock to me too." She mumbled.

"I see you decorated among other things." He looked around her apartment.

"Shisui and Itachi came by with storage scrolls from the compound." She told him.

"So I see." He gestured to the clan crest on her wall.

"They put that up not me." She clarified.

"Hn."

They sat there in silence for a few moments.

"Madara, do you know where Obito Uchiha is?" She asked carefully.

"No, I have been trying to find him but remain unsuccessful."

"And Orochimaru? Do you know where he is?" She asked.

"Why do you want to know?" He knew why.

"I need to kill him, stop him." She said simply.

"You are a strong and talented kunoichi Sakura." He paused." I am not sure if you will be able to handle him on your own." He said slowly. "I will go with you."

"Why would you do that?" She furrowed her brow in confusion.

"So you don't get yourself killed, I told you, we are connected now, forever." He looked at the crest on her wall.

"Madara." She turned to him. "Where do you go when you aren't with me?"

"I have an agenda too, you are not the only one who was given a second chance, I am just more restricted than you, due to ...complications." He said slowly as if he were choosing his words carefully.

"You will notice I have my Mangekyou Sharingan but did you know I also have the Rinnegan?" His eyes faded from coal to ringed purple.

"How?" She leaned forward to look more closely at his eyes.

He laughed, "You are an unusual woman, are you not afraid of the Rennigan?"

"We are linked now, you said, we are connected, you can't hurt me can you?" She claimed boldly.

"Not without hurting myself, no. I don't want to hurt you."

"If you still have your Rinnegan, then Nagato, doesn't have it? Which means you didn't save Obito to manipulate and use him?" She hypothesized.

"That is my assumption, however, I prefer to have proof. I have not been able to locate Nagato, yet. I think I have a lead and will be leaving tomorrow to follow it." He said.

"How will you do that though, can others see you now? I forgot to ask, you disappear so quickly."

"I think they might be able to, I was hesitant to find out."

"Ah, she understood. Use a change maybe? You will need to find out, that is crucial." She said.

"I am aware of that." He said impatiently. She doesn't know, she doesn't understand what it means, do not blame her, he told himself.

"Let's find out." She stood up and put on a henge of her own. "Now you."

Madara looked at her annoyed." You don't have to go with me." But he cast his henge anyway.

Sakura reached out to touch the long white hair of the man before her. She tugged on a lock gently.

"I can touch you still." She smiled.

"I can feel it still." he smiled.

"Let's try it out, see if others can see you. Let's go get some Dango!" She laughed and turned toward her door.

"I don't like Dango," he said

"Eh, what do you want to get then?" She huffed.

"Tempura, shrimp tempura." He said walking past her and out the door.

"Okay," she said, it was her favorite.

They walked down the street to the market in their henges. She was black haired and taller, he was white haired and shorter. They attracted little attention as they walked, just a brief glance from one person or two.

They came to the stand."You order." she told him.

"Two orders of shrimp tempura." He commanded.

"Easy killer." She laughed.

"Coming right up sir!" The owner of the stand told them with a smile and a wink.

Sakura reached out and took his hand in hers squealing, "He can see you!"

"I noticed." He said gruffly but smiled.

They paid for their food and sat down on the benches provided to eat. Madara couldn't help but smile at his companion. He had never been on a date before. He was too busy with, well, war. Is this what it felt like to be normal?

Sakura sat across from him shrimp tempura in her hand, dipping it into the tempura sauce, chewing noisily. He laughed.

"What is it?" She asked in between bites.

"You eat like a little kid, did you know?" He grinned at her.

"I do not!" she scowled at him.

"You do, and now you're pouting like one too." He all but pointed at her and laughed.

A small, something, lit inside of her. She had never really dated before, is this what it felt like to date? To laugh and eat food with someone, to just enjoy someone else's company? Going out for ramen with her team never felt like this, eating ramen alone with Naruto never felt like this. She blushed.

Madara watched her face, it was the face of the henge he knew but the expressions were all Sakura. He had watched her for so long, talked to her more now than he ever had before, he realized, he knew her. The only other person he had bothered to get to know was Izuna and Hashirama. It felt nice, to have her here with him.

They walked back to her apartment slowly, the weather was nice and the food had been good. He hadn't tasted food, been hungry for so long. It was nice.

"Well we know that people can see and hear you, and you can pick things up like tempura." She teased him.

"Want to spar? You will need to see if you can fight." She said reasonably.

They walked to the training field together. She was a little excited she had to admit, sparing against Madara Uchiha, she would probably get her ass kicked but it was still exciting. She smiled to herself.

She stood facing him and they made the sign for a friendly spar.

"Ready to dance love?" He asked her.

"I am ready." She smiled at him and teleported behind him, pulling her katana out of its sheath.

He blocked her efforts with a well placed elbow and thrust to her side preventing her from drawing the weapon completely. The sword fell back into the scabbard as she let go to block his next strike.

"So fast." she huffed and ducked to avoid another jab.

"This is just a warm up dear." he grinned at her and leaped into the air, his leg cocked.

"Shit." she rolled out of the way as he came shooting back down at her fast. Chakra flooded to her hands as she blocked blow after blow.

He was incredible. She knew of his legendary weapon the Gun Bai, who hadn't, but little had been said about his TaiJutsu prowess. It was bruising, and she could tell he was holding back...a lot.

Already her arms were going numb with the vibration and power of his hits when she blocked them. She tried to dodge him and run to gain some distance but he wouldn't allow it. His foot came down on hers, and trapped it, she would step back and he would step forward, he locked his arm in her arm and threw her over his head. She landed on her back the wind from her lungs pushed out and left her gasping.

"I concede." She gasped out catching her breath.

He reached a hand down to help her up. "That was incredible you are incredible, you're faster than Itachi and Shisui combined."

"Of course I am." He said surprised.

"They are the fastest, most talented shinobi in the world right now." She protested.

"I am Madara Uchiha. My first kill was at 6 years old in my first battle, my first war. I have the battle experience of almost two lifetimes." There was no comparison.

"I am beginning to understand." She admitted. "So, you can fight, what now?"

"Now we go home, tomorrow I will get my Gun Bai and look for Nagato." They made it home just as the moon rose.


	18. Chapter 18

"Madara." She called to him from the bed.

He turned from the window," Hum?"

"Tell me how you lived so long, before, was it purely due to your naturally strong life force?" She asked.

Madara sighed, "No, not entirely." He walked over and sat on the end of her bed.

"After I was killed in the Valley of the End by Hashirama, my body was hidden so that it could not be used against my clan or taken for profit. I have always been a planner, I leave nothing to chance. In the event of my death, I scheduled an Izanagi to activate, changing reality. Like everything, it came at a price." He explained.

"What was the price?" She couldn't help but ask, it was forward but Madara had always been clouded in mystery, so few people of her time knew anything about him, even the Uchiha, Sasuke had admitted as much to her.

"My right eye's vision. I left a copy in place of my real body and went into hiding. I had taken some of Hashirama's flesh with me when I had been defeated at the Valley of the End and hidden it in my body. Toward the end of my natural life which was decades later, the cells took effect and activated my Rinnegan, returning sight to my right eye."

"But how did you live long enough to give your Rinnegan to Nagato, you must have been very old by then." She was confused by the timeline and he didn't seem to mind her asking, which surprised her a little.

"It was at the end of my life, I could feel my life force waning. Nagato was an Uzumaki, they too have a strong life force, strong chakra, he was a perfect vessel for my Rennigan. I was." He paused. "A different person then, I was under the influence of the curse." He sighed.

Sakura sat up in bed and took his hand. "I know the man you were then is not the man you are now, here in this time. Neither of us is the same as we were." She knew he felt guilty, could tell it weighed heavily on his mind.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I just wanted to understand, to know you, what you were and well, I guess, who you are now?" She smiled a little shyly at him. "It isn't every day you get to ask a legendary shinobi of history what really happened or why they did what they did." She shrugged but kept smiling at him.

"I am flattered you wish to learn more about me Sakura." He said sincerely stroking her hand.

Sakura blushed, "Who wouldn't want to know more about the great Madara Uchiha?"

"Not everyone thinks of the word Great when they hear my name, most think I am a monster." He said quietly.

"You were consumed, by love and loss, but you were not a monster." She moved closer to him to take his other hand in hers. "You were trying to protect your clan because you loved them, you thought the only way to do that was to have power, you were perhaps, um, a bit obsessed, but you weren't a monster Madara."

He looked at her sitting there so close, a look of sincerity, of what was it...forgiveness? "How can you say such things, I am the reason all of your loved ones are dead. It is my fault, my lust for power, my foolishness, that took everything from you, how can you sit there and act like you forgive me?" He didn't understand her.

"I do forgive you. I didn't think I could. I didn't want to but, I see now, I think I understand and if I can understand, I can forgive right?" She smiled.

"You are a very strange kunoichi. Your heart, you wear it so boldly out in the open, it is very unusual." He said watching her face.

She huffed a bit and started to pull her hands away. A defiant look growing in her eyes.

"I didn't mean it was a bad thing, only an unusual trait for a kunoichi as strong as you, it is...admirable." He said caressing her hands with his thumbs.

"It is what I find most attractive about you, your kindness, your willingness to love." He raised one of his hands to her cheek and watched her eyes as they widened. "Love is most precious above all things to the Uchiha. I am no different, just as you said." He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers.

"Madara, I." She started to say but stopped.

"I know." He kissed her one more time and withdrew his hand from her cheek taking her hand in his again, squeezing both of her hands with both of his. "We have things to do."

She tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her ear and nodded.

"Get some sleep love, I will leave in the morning to see if I can find Nagato and you need to see if the Hokage has come to a decision about the remaining Akatsuki members and what he wants to do about them." He tucked the covers around her and kissed her forehead. "I'm going to get some air, I'll be back." he looked down at her as he rose from the bed.

"Thank you, Sakura."

"For what?" She asked him.

"For not hating me for wanting to get to know me, the real me." Madara smiled and leaped to her bedroom window doing the hand signs for several different protection seals. He watched as they settled over her small apartment and then jumped to the neighboring rooftop and beyond till he reached the forest.

Madara stood on a tall tree looking out over the Uchiha district that bordered the forest close to her apartment. Was he making the same mistakes all over again? No, he said to himself, it is not for hate this time, it is for love. Did he not do what he did out of the love he had for his younger brother? He struggled with his thoughts as the wind blew the tree back and forth.

She doesn't know the cost of her affections, he knew. Would it change the way she felt about him, does he even know how he felt about her? He had never been in love before, the love for clan for family is a different kind of love than that of a wife, a woman. Wife. Could he have that, could he be happy here, now, with her? At what cost though, she wouldn't want that.

No, he told himself, he couldn't do it. If she knew the cost, if she knew the truth, it would change everything. He had hurt her too much already, he had taken from her everyone she knew and loved, would he do it again, could he be that selfish? No. Madara shook his head and made his way back to Sakura's apartment. He undid the seals and jumped through her bedroom window without a sound. Resealing the apartment he left her room to lay on the couch in the living room. He not only felt hungry again but also tiring. He would find another way. What if he could find a way to unseal his chakra from her seal the Rabbit gave her. Would his life force return to him? He closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep.

He had been dreaming of his brother and of Hashirama. They had been by the river and Izuna had brought their father. His father had lunged at Hashirama with the intent to kill. Blood exploded like flowers in the river. He woke to screaming. "Sakura!"

Madara raced into her bedroom and to her bed where she was twisting and turning in her sleep. "Sasuke! Naruto! Noo!" She screamed.

"Sakura! Love! Wake up, it's only a dream." He shook her, he held her to him, he patted her, he tried to restrain her arms that were flailing about.

Her breath came quick and uneven, she choked herself awake tears streaming down her pale face. "Madara?" She threw her arms around him, "Madara!"

She clung to him sobbing. "They are all dead. My boys, my loved ones, all dead."

He felt terrible. This is why he reminded himself. This is why I don't deserve her, I don't deserve to be happy. He held her in his arms and soothed her tears till she fell back asleep.

He rubbed his hands over his face as he lay back on the couch in the living room. He needed to focus, they had a job to do, he had promised to help her, he owed her.

Knock Knock Knock

"Sakura." Madara pet her on the head. "Someone is at your doors. I'm going to go now. I'll let you know if I find anything." He kissed her on the head and jumped out of her bedroom window.

Knock Knock Knock

"Coming!' She yelled as she smiled to herself. She stood for a moment feeling his chakra signature disappear from her apartment and the surrounding area.

Sakura opened her front door and was caught up in the biggest bear hug ever. "Na, Naruto?" She asked as she was enveloped in orange and black.

"Sakura!" He yelled in her ear making her wince. "I'm home!"

"Stop hugging her so tightly, you're going to squeeze the life out of her idiot," Sasuke said from behind Naruto.

"Sorry Sakura, it's just so good to see you, I missed you so much!" He smiled at her grin as big as she had remembered.

"Naruto, I missed you so much too!" She stepped aside to let them in.

"Shisui and Itachi will be coming soon too, Mom sent them to pick up some more groceries now that Naruto is back," Sasuke told her plopping down on her couch and putting his feet on her coffee table.

"Wow, Sakura, your place looks really nice. Where did you get all the cool furniture and decorations?"

"Sasuke's parents gave them to me, Shisui and Itachi helped set it up." She smiled, she liked her new place.

"So Naruto, how have you been, tell me all about your training with the legendary Sannin?" She sat down beside Sasuke on the couch.

"I learned a new Jutsu it's called the Rasengan! It is a ball of chakra that spins and I can push it through people and make them explode!" He grinned at her.

"That's great." She smiled.

"You don't seem impressed Sakura." He whined.

"I'm sorry, I just woke up, tell me, where did you go, did you meet anyone interesting?" She asked him.

"We met the other legendary Sannin Tsunade! In a bar! She is really short tempered but she gave me this." He pointed to a necklace around his neck. "It was the First Hokage's!" He said proudly.

She made sure to be much more enthusiastic this time, "Wow! Amazing!" She almost yelled and Sasuke stifled a laugh at her facial expression.

Knock Knock

Sakura went to open the door.

"Hey, flower." Shisui and Itachi walked in carrying a few bags of groceries and a bo staff.

"Hey nice staff, can I see it?" She asked Shisui.

"It's for you, from our Dad," Itachi told her. "For your new apartment. You get a weapon to protect the house when you first move out of your parent's since your parents are civilians my dad said we needed to do it."

"Wow! I'll thank him in person, but tell him I said thank you." She took the staff from Shisui and ran her hand down the length of it. Her apartment was too small but she would be going to the training grounds later today for sure to try it out. She had never used one before and wondered if Madara would show her.

"I can show you some basics later if you like Sakura." Itachi offered.

"Oh um, maybe." She smiled at him.

Itachi paused, he wasn't sure what to say, she had always jumped on the chance to be trained with a new weapon. He was surprised she didn't want to leave right now and go try it out.

Sasuke and Shisui gave her an odd look too. They had noticed too.

Naruto was rifling through the grocery bags, "Hey ramen!"

"Help yourself Naruto." She smiled at her friend, it was good to have him home.

Madara crossed over the border between Fire and Rain shortly after midday. He was making good time. He walked through the village after crossing the large lake that surrounded it. What a dreary place, it rained constantly. He knew from Obito that the Akatsuki used to have their base here. He followed the main road in a henge and looked up at the tallest tower. Pein's tower. He jumped from the ground to the first story then second, fourth and so on till he reached the top.

"You are either very powerful or very foolish to enter here." A deep voice greeted him from the shadows.

"Care to find out?" Madara asked casually a smirk on his face as he looked at Yahiko, one of Nagato's Pains.

"Who are you?" Pein asked.

"I am no one, but I am looking for someone. Tobi, is he here?"

"Tobi is no longer one of our associates, he left with another associate years ago, Orochimaru. What do you want with him?" Pein asked suspiciously.

"To save him. I owe him a debt." Madara said truthfully.

"A debt. An interesting choice of words for someone who will not show their face." Pein said raising his hand. "Universal pull!"

Madara sent chakra to his feet and legs, his body leaned but did not move forward.

"So, powerful, not foolish. What village are you from, surely you are a nin, are you a missing nin?" Pein asked Madara.

"I have no desire to join the Akatsuki. I mean you no harm but I warn you, your attempts to seal away the Jinchuriki will fail, everything you love, that you have left, will be lost." Madara turned to go but was stopped by Pein.

"Wait, how do you know what we want? Who are you?" Pein asked him.

"I am a friend. I owe you a debt as well as Tobi. I know you will not listen but I have told you what will come to pass, my debt is repaid." Madara jumped to the window and down so fast Pein wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been watching him so carefully.

"Powerful," Pein said to the woman standing in the shadows to his left.

"What will you do?" She inquired.

"I will think about it." He replied.

Madara knew who Orochimaru was. He had heard of him during the fourth great shinobi war, had seen him on the battle field. Sakura had told him many unsavory disgusting things about the man. He knew Sakura wanted the man dead, he knew from watching him for a short time on the battle field she was no match for the man. He would do it. He would kill Orochimaru and try to save Obito.

First, he would let Sakura know that Obito was alive. He had promised her he would let her know if he found anything out. He set down in a small clearing once he had reached the Fire country again. Biting his thumb he called forth his summons. "Tell the pink hair of Konoha that I have found what we were looking for and am going to engage him in conversation. I will return to her in no less than 3 days' time."

The hawk nodded and Madara threw his arm into the air and watched him fly toward Konoha. He smiled as he resumed his course. It was nice to have someone to tell where he was going and when he would be back. It was nice to have someone to come back to. He frowned as he ran, no, that was bad. He couldn't help but feel the smallest twinge of guilt as he smiled again. She had been so beautiful this morning, asleep and warm in her bed. He had kissed her on the forehead but had wanted to crawl into bed with her and kiss her on her lips.

Madara let out a sigh as he made his way toward Sound, where Orochimaru was said to be.

Naruto had eaten almost all of the instant ramen Shisui and Itachi had brought with them and half of the popcorn she had just set out. Sasuke and Shisui had filled Naruto in on what he had missed while they were gone including what Sakura had told them. Oddly enough he wasn't as surprised to hear she was sent back in time from the future like the rest of them had been. He said it made sense. She had always known things no one else did, was always better at everything and she had always been nice to him.

Sakura smiled as she watched her old friend shove handful after handful of popcorn in his mouth. They were watching a movie together. Shisui and Itachi had left to go help Mikoto with something but Sasuke and Naruto had stayed to hang out and catch up with one another. Naruto was sprawled out on the rug in front of the TV and Sasuke was on the couch with her still.

All three of their heads turned to look at the window, there was a soft tap tap tap coming from her sliding glass door. Sakura got up and opened the door and a hawk flew in. A beautiful hawk the size of a large dog with golden feathers and silver eyes. "Sakura, the pink hair of Konoha, Madara says he found what he was looking for and is going to engage him in conversation. He will return to you in no less than 3 days' time"

"Thank you. Could you please tell Madara to be careful and I will be here when he gets back if I have not been sent out on a mission." She told the hawk with a pet on the head. He bowed to her and flew back out the window.

"He sent you a summons?" Sasuke asked after the hawk had left. "How is that possible, I thought he couldn't touch or grasp anything, like he was a ghost?"

"Things have changed, I don't know how but he can move more freely now and has a physical form." She told them.

"That part is incredible, a founder of Konoha your friend. He must have some really cool stories." Naruto was excited.

"He does. It is nice to hear how Konoha was from the original source. He told me how the civilians complained about the nin running across rooftops once." She laughed.

"But they're nin, they don't make any noise!" Naruto protested.

"That's what I said!" they laughed together.

"So, he lives here with you then?" Sasuke asked her.

"I guess. I think he slept on the couch last night. He isn't here all the time, as you can see." She said slowly. She hadn't given it much thought. He had always come and gone as he pleased, it didn't seem a lot different now than before.

"He eats now and sleeps, that is different." She told her friends.

"I think it is way cool, I can't wait to meet him!" Naruto smiled happily.

"You two might get along really well. You have Asura's spirit just like he has Indra's, like Hashirama, had Asura's spirit, and they were best friends. Like you and Sasuke."

"How can we both have Indra's spirit though?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh, I never thought of that. Kaguya knew when she was sending me, she knew you and Naruto would be here, that's why she did it. She told me to watch over you, to be the love that binds you." Sakura said looking from one of her boys to the other.

"And you have Sakura." Naruto smiled at her taking her hand.

"You have, I only wonder, where does that leave Madara, can we both exist here?" He asked.

"I have his chakra sealed in the diamond at the back of my neck, maybe that is how you can both be here at the same time." She guessed. "I'm not sure."

"Maybe you should ask Madara, maybe he knows," Naruto suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, I'll ask him when he gets home." She smiled at Naruto.

Sasuke sat back down on the couch and patted the seat next to him for her to join him. She lowered herself back onto the couch thinking. He had said that he could have a physical form but it came at a cost and the cost was not for him to pay but her. He had a physical form now. Had she paid the cost?

Sasuke taped her leg and tilted his head in inquiry. "It's nothing, just thinking." She smiled at him.

"It looks like it is something serious, want to tell me?" He asked.

She shook her head," It's nothing, just something Madara said when I asked him if he could ever return to the world as more than a ghost."

"What did he say?"

"He said he could but it would come at a cost and I was the one who would pay it." She told him.

"Do you know what it is, what you have to do?" He asked her.

"No, and he didn't tell me, I don't know if he knows."

"Ask him when he gets back, like Naruto said, he might know." Sasuke tried to be optimistic for her sake but it sounded ominous.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm worrying about nothing." She smiled and turned back to the movie.

Sasuke watched her for a few more minutes. She was worried, he could tell. He was worried. Madara wasn't a threat before, he couldn't touch her, he couldn't do anything but talk to her, but now...by her own admission, he could talk and touch...and attack.

"Sakura." Sasuke said carefully, "Maybe he should move out, maybe it isn't a good idea for him to live here with you, now that he is, a man again."

"Don't be silly, we are good friends, he wouldn't hurt me. He cares about me, he warned me about Gaara's Shukaku." She pointed out.

"True." Sasuke decides to drop it for now.


	19. Chapter 19

Madara stood outside of Orochimaru's hideout. He could feel the dark chakra swirling about the forest floor. No animals would go near it, no plants grew at the entrance. Evil lived here. He had thought about what he would say to Obito on his way here. He knew not everything would make sense to the boy. He decided the best approach was the simplest. Honest, to the point explanations.

Madara flared his immense chakra signature and waited. He was not to his full capacity yet, of course, that would take some time. Still, the chakra he had now was impressive when he allowed it to be detected freely. He felt a shift in the air.

"I know you're there." He activated his Mangekyo Sharingan and turned to The left of the hideout's entrance.

"Who are you Uchiha and why are you here?" Obito asked in the voice of Tobi.

"Such foolishness. It was annoying then, as it is now. Speak normal Obito I haven't the time to play with you." Madara commanded.

"Who are you?" Came Obito's normally deep voice, suspicious.

"Uchiha Madara." Madara used Kamui and transported himself and Obito.

"Kamui," Obito said curiously when they fell onto the blocks.

"Yes, a gift from my younger brother Izuna." Madara offered.

"Why bring me here, what do you want, and I do not believe you are Madara Uchiha, he died long ago." Obito stood tall facing him.

"Don't believe everything you hear boy. I am Madara Uchiha. I used Izanagi and changed reality. I am going to change it again, starting with you. You are not who you think you are. I don't pretend to know what you have been through but I will show you what I put you through." Madara's tomes spun in his eyes and he activated his Tsukiyomi.

Obito saw himself under the rock, Rin crying, saw him give Kakashi his Sharingan. Pictures flashed around him of the life he had in Madara and Sakura's time. He saw an elderly Madara come out of the shadows after he had been crushed by the rock and help him. He watched as the elderly Madara used cells from Hashirama Senju to replace his crushed side and his crushed eye. Madara showed him helping Itachi to kill their clan. Obito saw himself as Tobi, the secret leader of the Akatsuki manipulating Pein for his Infinite Tsukiyomi. The fourth great ninja war, Kaguya and finally Sakura getting sent back with Madara's chakra sealed in the back of her neck.

Madara watched Obito's face flit in and out of both shock and horror. He waited for the scenes to play out in the man's mind. When Obito took a deep breath and sighed he knew it was time to show him what he could have if he joined him now.

Madara's tomes spun again and a new reality, one filled with friends, Kakashi, being welcomed home to the compound. Helping to destroy Orochimaru and the Akatsuki if they chose to continue with their plan. Family. A hero instead of an outcast. Home. A second chance. Then he brought him back to the present.

Obito took several deep breaths. "Impossible."

"You always were a pessimist even as a young boy, you tried to pretend you weren't, but I knew. Rin is not alive, I asked about her for you. She died a hero, on a mission, protecting her friends, but Kakashi is still alive, and he...misses you as do all the Uchiha who are alive and well thanks to Sakura." Madara told him as the reality of this time sank in.

"We can find happiness here, both of us. A second chance Obito, will you help me?"

"You'll trust me?" Obito's voice was innocent sounding but skeptical, so much like the boy he once knew.

"There are some benefits to being me. If you try to double cross me, hurt the one I love, I'll kill you and it will not be pleasant." Madara smiled.

"What do you need help with? The Akatsuki?" Obito asked.

"First we kill Orochimaru, then we wait and see what Pein does with the information I gave him."

"Why are you doing this?" Obito asked.

"I am correcting my mistakes. You saw the other timeline, you saw what I became. What I did. Countless bodies piled one upon the other, young and old, shinobi and civilian alike." Madara replied.

"But your intentions were good, everyone would have been happy." Obito protested.

"It wasn't real. This will be real." Madara said simply.

Obito sat down on one of the blocks in his Kamui and thought for a long time. Madara waited patiently.

"Yes. Madara Sama, I'll help you." Obito inclined his head gracefully to the older Uchiha.

Amaterasu left nothing but ashes. Smoke rose over Sound as Obito followed Madara back to Konoha.

As they crossed into the land of Fire Madara paused. "I need to let Sakura know I will be back early. I had told her no less than three days."

Obito watched as he summoned a hawk.

"Tell the pink hair of Konoha that I am returning presently with Obito Uchiha. He will need to stay with us until he can be reintegrated back into the compound." The hawk nodded and flew away as Madara lifted his arm to the sky.

"This Sakura, she is your wife then?" Obito asked.

"No, she is. We are connected, we came back together. She is, special." Madara hesitated. "She will be happy to see you. She was Kakashi's student in her time and this one. She knows your story and Rin's."

They set off again at a fast pace. Madara wanted to get back to Sakura as soon as he could.

She was outside on her balcony when the hawk touched down lightly beside her. Naruto had left and Sasuke was in the bathroom. She pet the hawk's head with her pointer finger. He ruffles his wings a bit and shook," Madara is returning now with Obito Uchiha." The hawk bowed slightly then flew away.

"What?" Sasuke said from behind her.

She turned to see him standing in the door frame of her sliding glass door.

"He found Obito?" Sasuke asked.

"I guess so, and they are coming back!" She smiled a genuine smile, she was excited and happy to see Madara again.

Sasuke started coughing and stumbled.

"Sasuke, are you okay come, sit on the couch." She pulled him back inside her apartment.

He sat down heavily on the couch as she went to get him a glass of water. Sasuke sipped the water and thanked her.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

"Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

"I'm fine, it was just a cough Sakura, really I'm alright." He smiled at her, she cared so much. It was nice.

"If you're sure", she sat down beside him.

"So when do you think they will get here, are they going to stay here?" He asked her between sips of water.

"Soon I imagine, and yes, I don't suppose they have anywhere else to go. I don't mind. I kinda missed Madara while he was gone and it will be nice to meet Obito." She smiled thinking of it.

"Ugh." Sasuke bent over grabbing his heart. It hurt so bad, just like last time. He couldn't breathe, no this was worse than last time.

"Sasuke!" Sakura's hands glowed green and she ran them slowly over his chest where he had been grabbing at his shirt in pain.

"Sasuke, your heart, it's beating erratically. Has this happened before?" She was worried, he was too young for heart failure.

"Last night, dinner time." He told her breathing heavily.

"I think we should get you to the hospital." She said as she stood up.

"No, it's going away now." He said and grabbed her arm to stop her. "I'm fine, besides the best medic nin in the world is right here. What can they do for me that you can't?" He smiled at her. It was the truth.

"You shouldn't be having chest pains like this. I can't find anything wrong though, it is strange." She pushed chakra back into her hands and placed them on his chest again.

Sasuke closed his eyes, he could feel her chakra flowing through him, it was soothing and relaxing, the pain had gone and her hands felt warm where they touched him. He brought his hands up over hers.

"Sakura. Thank you, don't worry okay, I'm fine." He smiled at her as she lowered her hands.

"I do worry." She shrugged. "I care about you."

"I like that you worry about me." He reached up and brushed her hair from her face. "Sakura we've known one another for a long time since we were kids. You're so amazing do you know that?" He wove his fingers into hers and pulled her closer to him.

"I remember the first day at the academy, you were such a brat. Do you remember?" He laughed.

"I remember you being an ass and basically telling me to move because you wanted the seat I was sitting in." She laughed.

"I remember seeing your seal for the first time, your hair, when you took it down, it was so beautiful." He said softly. "You're so beautiful Sakura." He leaned his forehead against hers.

"Sasuke." She said and started to back away.

He pulled her back, "I know before, in your time, I was a jerk to you, I know I didn't love you but, here, this time." He paused.

"You don't understand." She pulled away from him then and stood up.

"What don't I understand? You loved me didn't you?" He asked her confused.

"I did but it was more of an infatuation. After years of you rejecting me, it hurt, I just, I loved you like a brother. In the end you, you told me you loved me, before, before you died in my arms!" She started to cry.

"That won't happen this time, didn't you tell us, didn't you say things had changed? I love you Sakura, here, now I love you." He said.

"But Sasuke, I don't love you like that here, now. You are my best friend, like my brother here. I'm sorry." She said reluctantly.

"It's because of him, isn't it. Madara."

"No Sasuke, there is just, there is too much to do still." She was trying.

"Don't lie to me Sakura." He spoke quietly, dangerously. "I saw the way your face lit up when you heard he was coming back." Sasuke took a step toward her.

"What do you think you're doing, are you trying to intimidate me?" She brought her fists up in a fighting stance.

"What's the meaning of this?" Madara's deep voice rang through her apartment.

"Madara!" Sakura smiled instantly and took a step toward him.

"Sakura, Tadima." Madara smiled at her.

"Okaeri." She smiled and looked past him to Obito.

"Welcome, Obito! I'm Sakura!" She motioned him to come into the room further. "Would you like something to drink? Sasuke was just leaving but this is Sasuke Uchiha." She waved vaguely in Sasuke's direction, who looked both pained and angry at the same time.

"I apologize, I hope we are not interrupting anything." Obito inclined his head respectfully.

"I hope we are. What is the meaning of this?" Madara asked Sasuke.

"So, you're back, with a physical body, not a ghost anymore I see." He sneered and glared at Sakura.

"How does he look so young?" Sasuke asked her.

Before Sakura could respond Madara stepped in front of her, "Questions about me should be directed to me."

"I was just leaving." Sasuke spat out and turned for the door slamming it behind him.

"A coward's retreat," Madara said cooly turning to Sakura. "Are you okay love?"

"Fine." She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Tired." She smiled at him.

"I missed you," she said.

"I missed you, you got my message?" He inquired.

"Yes, Obito can stay with us of course." She turned to Obito, "I'm sorry, I don't have another bed but I have a very comfortable couch. Help yourself to anything in the fridge or cupboards, towels are in the bathroom, use whatever you like." She smiled at him and he inclined his head to her again.

"Does Kakashi know you are back?" She asked him.

"No, we just returned, it seems someone was anxious to get home." He smiled and gestured to Madara. "Of course after having met you, I can see why."

Sakura blushed and stuttered, were all Uchiha so handsome, of course, they are, but not all of them are so charming.

"Kakashi will be so surprised to see you!" She smiled once again happy they were here.

"I'll get you some blankets and a pillow." She said and left the room.

"She reminds me of Rin." Obito watched Sakura as she walked out of the room.

"She is a remarkable woman." Madara agreed with the clear compliment.

"She likes you, she is happy you are home," Obito commented.

"We have grown closer," Madara admitted.

"Hn."

Sakura came back into the room, blankets overflowing in her arms, Obito stepped forward to take some from her and laid them out on the couch. She handed him two pillows.

"Let me know if you need anything else." She told him.

"Thank you for welcoming me into your home Sakura." He smiled.

"I apologize in advance if there is obnoxious pounding on the door early tomorrow morning. Uchiha seems to think it's funny to come calling at the ass crack of dawn." She glared at her door as if someone had just been pounding on it.

"You aren't an Uchiha?" Obito asked in surprise. Even with the pink hair she had seemed so at home with the Uchiha, like no outsider he had ever met, had.

"Me? No. Just a very good friend of the head family, kinda like an adopted Uchiha." She laughed.

"Adopted Uchiha, it seems some things have changed for the better. That would be unheard of in my younger days. I thought perhaps you were half Uchiha." He touched his own spiky dark locks and then motioned to the clan crest on the wall.

"Ah, yes I see, Shisui put that up on my wall, Shisui Uchiha. They are convinced I am going to marry one of them eventually." She laughed.

"It seems I have a lot to learn. I look forward to meeting everyone." Obito was a little overwhelmed but happy. He had made the right decision.

"It grows late, shall we retire my dear?" Madara motioned to the bedroom.

"Oh? Oh! Uh okay." Sakura blushed prettily at him and he smiled.

"Good night Obito." She smiled and walked toward the bedroom.

"Goodnight Sakura, Madara Sama." Obito inclined his head.

"Good night Obito, we will talk more in the morning." Madara followed Sakura into the bedroom.

Just friends hum? Obito laughed. He hoped that the girl knew what she was in for. When an Uchiha fell in love, it was for life, whether thier intended knew it or not.

Sasuke slammed the door to his room and fell back onto his bed.

Tap Tap Tap

"Sasuke, everything okay?" Itachi asked his little brother through the door.

"Come in." Sasuke knew he would come in anyway.

Itachi came in and sat on the end of his bed.

"What's wrong, weren't you just at Sakura's?" Itachi asked.

"I left because I told her I loved her and Madra Uchiha showed up with Obito Uchiha." Sasuke groaned.

"Madara?" Itachi said in disbelief.

"Yeah, he is real and in the flesh apparently and he went and got Obito and brought him back here with him. They are staying with Sakura."

"In her apartment?" Itachi asked.

"Hn."

So, we can see him and hear him now, he is real. Not that I didn't believe her, it's a lot to take in. Hum, and he brought back Obito. "Where was Obito do you know?" Itachi asked Sasuke who had turned to bury his face in his pillow.

"No idea." He huffed. "I don't care. I told her I loved her and she told me that I'm like her brother."

Itachi had known this but hadn't bothered to tell Sasuke, he wouldn't have listened anyway. "At least you are still friends," Itachi said lamely.

"I don't want to be friends, she loved me before, in another time, why doesn't she love me now?" Sasuke complained.

"From what I understand, in the other time you weren't very nice to her, she got over you and doesn't see you that way anymore." Itachi tried to say it as nicely as possible.

"She is in love with Madara." Sasuke sighed. "No one can possibly compete with him, except maybe Hashirama."

"I'm more concerned about Obito and where Madara found him, why did he bring him back?" Itachi wondered out loud.

"Hell if I know, who cares?" Sasuke didn't want to talk about Obito.

"Because he could be a danger and he is sleeping in Sakura's apartment right now," Itachi said flatly.

"Madara is with her." Sasuke offered.

"That isn't reassuring either from what she told us of her timeline, and we don't know how he got a physical body either." Itachi's mind began to spin.

"I'm sending a summons to Shisui we are going over there in the morning." Itachi got up and left the room.

"Ugh." Sasuke moaned into his pillow in frustration.

Sakura stood in the middle of her bedroom looking at Madara.

"Are you tired love?" He asked as he took his shirt off and sat on the bed.

"A little." She said truthfully. "Um, were you planning on um, sleeping with me?" Her face turned red at the sight of his bare chest, his very attractive bare chest.

"I can sleep on the floor if you want, but I thought it best if we slept in the same room, because of Obito. I don't trust him completely yet. I'm not letting my guard down."

"Of course, I'm sorry, I was just being silly. Don't sleep on the floor, the bed is big." She walked to her closet and shut the door. She came back out in her sleeping kimono and got into bed.

He watched her smooth the covers over her small form and lay down with her head on her pillow turning away from him.

"Sakura, you don't need to be scared of me. You have slept in the same bed with men before on missions haven't you?"

"Yes but that was on a mission, this is my home, my bed." She squeaked out.

He got into bed next to her and propped his head in his hand leaning on his elbow facing her.

"Are you still a virgin?" He asked her bluntly.

She turned over to face him, "Of course I am!" She said angrily, "What do you take me for!"

"You're a shinobi who may die any day, sex isn't the same for us as it is for civilians. I wasn't implying anything insulting." He grinned at her reaction.

"Were you a virgin before, during the war?" He could almost hear her blood begin to boil.

"Of course I was!" She glared at him.

"I'm surprised. You are strong and beautiful, I would have thought someone would have stolen your heart by now, or then." He reached out and traced her lips with a finger, his virgin flower.

"What are you, what?" She looked at him in confusion her face red and blotchy from embarrassment.

"I know you have been kissed before, in Suna, Shisui kissed you. Sasuke kissed you. You forget I have been watching you since we came here together." He said softly taking a lock of her pink hair and sifting it through his fingers as he watched her eyes.

"Then why did you ask me if I was a virgin, you should already know I am. Why do you even care?" She hissed.

"I wasn't always with you as you got older. As you got older and turned into a young woman I afforded you more and more privacy. I left for a few days at a time sometimes to search for things, people, places. As you got stronger, so did I." He let go of her lock of hair and it fell to the side of her face.

"I have always been watching out for you though. Learning about you, getting to know you." He saw the softness in her eyes then, she was no longer glaring at him.

"Get some rest love, the morning will come soon in the form of three Uchiha's banging on the door and one white haired menace I'm sure."

"Kakashi?" She laughed.

"Yes." Madara smiled at her laughing face.

"How is he a menace?" She asked smiling still.

He liked this, having her in bed with him, smiling, talking.

"He used to follow you around like he was obsessed with you, I watched him follow you to the library, to the training ground, to the academy, every day for years...he was a menace," Madara said flatly.

"He was suspicious of me, he knew I was different." She said.

"Yes well, many people knew that but didn't follow you everywhere." He huffed a little.

She watched him, "You were jealous." realization hit her.

"No." He said too quickly.

She smiled, the great Madara Uchiha was jealous...over her.

"They got to talk to you, spend time with you, interact with you. I watched you but it was years before I could speak to you. I was...lonely." He felt foolish for speaking like this but it was the truth.

Her eyes softened again and she put her palm to his bare chest. "Thank you for always being there for me." She smiled at him.

He took her hand in his and pulled her to him wrapping his arms around her. "I told you, we are connected for eternity. Get some rest."

Her breath was soft and warm against his skin. He held her in his arms and closed his eyes. He could do this, he would make all the wrongs he had done right. He wanted her, more than he had ever wanted anything before. The smallest twinge of guilt filled his heart. Sasuke.

She relaxed in his embrace. He was strong, she felt safe. He was warm, it felt right. She breathed in his scent again and again. "I'm glad you're home."

It was such a simple sentence yet it meant so much to him. Home.

Madara knew the moment she fell asleep, her breathing evened out and shallowed, her shoulders relaxed and slumped. He took another deep breath feeling her hair brush the backs of his arms, inhaling her scent. He closed his eyes and felt at peace for the first time in over 120 years.

"Forgive me Sasuke." He held her to him as she slept. He had waited 17 years for this. It wasn't his fault the boy was a fool for not taking what he could have in this life or the last.


	20. Chapter 20

Sasuke still lay on his bed, face in his pillow huffing and gritting his teeth. She had loved him before, why not now, what was different? He rolled over onto his back and stared at his ceiling. The massacre obviously, her past experiences, the list went on and on. He shook his head. It must be what she said. She had loved him for 16 years and he had constantly rejected her, so she had moved on. He was mad at his other self, but what could he do nothing.

He sat up and left his room for the kitchen. There was a small throbbing pain in his chest. It had started a day or two ago, he couldn't remember, it started as a piercing pain, then a dull throb, now it was just plain annoying. Sakura didn't know what it was. You couldn't die from heartache, could you? He laughed at himself, so stupid.

He had just stepped into the kitchen when a searing white pain flashed through his body and he fell to the floor gripping his chest.

Sasuke tried to call out for help but no sound came out. What the hell was happening. He kicked his legs out and sat down, leaning against the cupboards, taking small shallow breaths.

He couldn't breathe. Sakura, he thought, Sakura I need you. Darkness surrounded the corners of his vision, he slumped over, chin on his chest.

"Sasuke?" Itachi called out to him but he didn't hear. "Sasuke!"

Madara woke first. He could sense them leaving the compound. Sasuke and Itachi were moving fast toward them. Shisui was heading to the market, no to the apartments on the other side of the market. Seems like they decided not to wait till the ass crack of dawn as his flower had put it, they were coming now. Madara still held Sakura in his arms, he didn't like the interruption but it needed to be dealt with.

"Sakura." He kissed her forehead. "We have company love, wake up. You need to get dressed dear."

"Hum?" She hummed in her sleep snuggling closer into his chest.

Madara smiled, she was adorable, and his.

"Wake up love, Itachi and Sasuke are headed this way and you need to get more suitable clothes on. They will be here soon." Madara kissed her lips gently.

"MM, Madara." She mewled, stretching slowly in his arms like a cat.

"I will meet them, you get dressed dear." Madara reluctantly smoothed down her sleeping clothes and got out of bed.

Sakura's eyes fluttered open in the absence of his body heat and she sat up.

"Did you say Sasuke and Itachi are coming?" She asked as there was a soft knock on the door.

"They're here, come out when you once you're dressed, I'm going to see what they need." He left the room.

Sakura got out of bed and stumbled to the closet. What time was it? She pulled a tee shirt and a pair of loose pants from her shelf and put them on under her sleeping kimono.

Madara opened the door to Itachi and Sasuke. Sasuke was slumped in Itachi's arms.

"What happened?" Madara stepped aside to let them into the small apartment.

Obito sat up on the couch and threw the blankets off.

"Madara Uchiha I see what my brother tells me is true, you're back," Itachi said calmly.

"I am, what has happened to the boy?" Madara looked at Sasuke's unresponsive form. Guilt filled his heart.

"Where is Sakura, she needs to tend him, he dropped unconscious while in our kitchen earlier tonight," Itachi asked.

"Here I am." Sakura rushed out of the bedroom to kneel beside Sasuke.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, no, how did this happen?" Her hands glowed green as she ran them over Sasuke's chest. She looked up to Itachi for answers.

Itachi was watching Madara. "He came home upset earlier after spending time here with you. He said he told you he loved you and you told him you loved him like a brother." Itachi stated the facts in his placid unwavering voice.

"I, yes." She said.

Itachi's eyes never left Madara. The man was..smirking? It was faint and it had disappeared shortly after Itachi had noticed, but he had noticed.

"You can't die of a broken heart though. He complained of chest pains earlier and had trouble breathing. I couldn't find anything physically wrong with him though." She continued to run her hands over Sasuke.

"I can't find anything wrong with him now." She frowned.

"Check his chakra pathways Sakura," Itachi said quietly.

Sakura looked up at Itachi, not an entirely unusual request but odd for regular pain and discomfort, and unheard of for someone not known to have been attacked by another nin. She moved her hands to Sasuke's temples and gasped.

"How did you know Itachi, his chakra is swirling in erratic directions disrupting the flow of his blood." She turned to look at the Uchiha heir.

"A hunch." Itachi was looking at Madara. "When did you attain this physical body of yours Madara?"

"Are you accusing me of something, young Uchiha?" Madara said smoothly.

Itachi took in his bare chest, his relaxed stance in Sakura's home as if it were his home. "Yes."

Sakura stood up. "Enough. We need to get him into the bed. Itachi could you." But she was interrupted by Shisui who walked in without knocking.

"I brought a few things so." He paused and took in the tense atmosphere. "What's going on?"

"Do you not knock when entering a lady's home?" Madara glared at Shisui.

Shisui grinned, "Do you not wear a shirt when in a lady's home?"

Obito coughed.

"Oh! Obito I'm so sorry. Uh. This is Obito, Obito, Itachi, Sasuke and Shisui Uchiha, your relatives." She gestured to her boys.

"We need to get Sasuke into a bed." She rose to take Sasuke from Itachi but he started for the bedroom before she could touch him.

Itachi paused in the door of her bedroom and spun around to face Madara. "Were you sleeping with Sakura!"

"What?" Shisui gasped and turned to Sakura.

"Obito was on the couch, and I have slept with all of you on missions, what is the big deal!" She had her hands on her hips. "Itachi put your damn brother in my bed, Shisui, shut your mouth, flies will get in. Madara put a fucking shirt on and everyone get out of my bedroom or I swear I'm going to start knocking heads!" She stomped into her bedroom as everyone left.

"She has quite a fire in her doesn't she, I can see why you like her," Obito said to them grinning.

Sakura ran her hands through her hair and sat on her bed beside Sasuke. She pulled a blanket up and over him smoothing his hair from his face and running her other hand over his chest with healing chakra. "Sasuke, what is happening to you?"

In the Living Room…

"Why were you in Sakura's room with her?" Itachi demanded from Madara.

"How are we able to see you now when we couldn't even hear you before?" Shisui asked staring at him.

"It is none of your business if I sleep with the young woman or if I don't. I have a physical body now because of Sakura." Madara told them as he settled back into an armchair.

"Sakura already introduced him but this is your relative, Obito Uchiha, I brought him back to be part of our family again." Madara waved to Obito on the couch.

"Our family?" Itachi said quietly.

"He is not the man Sakura told you in her time. He is part of our family." Madara said sternly.

Itachi's head snapped up, the normally calm and collected man glared at Madara. "Our family. You are not the Clan Head in this time Madara, do not presume authority."

"Itachi," Shisui warned.

Itachi turned to his cousin. "Beware the ghost who turns into a man cousin, he has to draw his lifeforce from somewhere...or someone."

"You are the clever one aren't you. I see what she sees in you, but she hasn't chosen you, she hasn't chosen anyone as far as I can see." Madara hummed.

"Indra," Itachi said. "Sasuke was born with the mark of Indra. The war she spoke of, Kaguya, you also have the mark of Indra, don't you." It was not a question.

Madara smiled. "Clever boy."

"Ah." Obito hummed from the couch. "I see."

"You too live up tot he stories she has told me." Madara inclined his head to Obito who looked at Madara with new respect.

"She doesn't know does she," Shisui asked. "She would never sacrifice Sasuke for you."

"Are you sure? You might be surprised what someone will do for love, love makes people do things they never thought they would." Madara said quietly.

"She doesn't love you." Itachi's voice was low, dangerous. His chakra swirled around him spreading out like poison.

"You don't belong here," Itachi said to Madara.

"Neither does she," Madara responded evenly.

In Sakura's Bedroom…

"Sakura," Sasuke whispered.

"Sasuke! Oh Sasuke, what happened?"

"I felt like my chest was being stabbed, it was such an intense pain. I wanted to die just so it would end but, I thought of you." He was out of breath.

"Rest, let me tell your brother you are okay, he is in the other room and very worried." She hugged him quickly then made to rise.

"Itachi is here?" He asked.

"Yes, and Shisui, and Madara and Obito, they are in the living room. Who knew my small apartment could hold so many people?" She laughed watching him.

"I'll be right back."

"Wait, Sakura, please." He raised his hand, reaching for her.

She took his hand in both f hers and sat back down on the bed beside him.

"About earlier, I'm sorry." He breathed slowly.

"It's okay Sasuke, don't think about it." She watched his breathing, it was stronger now and she relaxed a bit.

"I meant what I said. I love you. I know you have this other life with me in your heart where I rejected you. It wasn't me though, it wasn't this me. You forgave Madara for what he was, can you not forgive me?" He reached up to cup her face with his hand.

"I am not the same man he was. I have always loved you since we were kids Sakura since you refused to give up your seat for me and glared at me. I had never met anyone so...fiesty, so beautiful." The look in his eyes was too much, she had to look away.

"Sasuke, it's hard. I want to love you but I'm scared. I spent so many years loving you, only to be rejected by you over and over again." She whispered.

"I understand, but I'm not that man. You forgave Madara." He said again.

"Yes, I guess I did. I hadn't even realized it but I guess somewhere along the line I did forgive him."

"Then forgive me, please." He tried to sit up but he couldn't he was still weak but he was starting to feel better.

"I forgive you." She smiled at him and hugged him.

In the Living Room…

Madara gripped the arms of the chair he was sitting in. A sharp pain shot through his chest. He looked to the bedroom, his eyes dark.

Itachi laughed. "Looks like Sasuke is awake and they are making up."

Madara glared at him. Obito kept silent but watched the interesting interaction taking place right before his eyes.

So, Obito thought, Madara isn't invincible, but he could be.

"You may be connected to her by that seal on the back of her neck but he is connected to her through two different lifetimes of friendship and family." Itachi continued.

"What do you think she will do when she finds out when she find out the cost of your physical existence." Itachi taunted.

No one had heard her open the door.

"What are you talking about?" She stood in the doorway of her bedroom looking from one face to another.

"Haven't you wondered how Madara has gained a physical form Sakura?" Itachi asked her.

"Well yes but."

"As he grows stronger, Sasuke grows weaker. You and Sasuke shared an emotional moment just now didn't you?" Itachi pushed.

"Yes."

"Madara flinched in pain and gripped the arms to his chair in reaction. For one to live, the other must die." Itachi said bluntly.

"Madara knew it and didn't tell you," Itachi added the last bit glaring at Madara.

"Is that true?" Sakura turned to Madara fists clenched.

"Partially. I was trying to find a substitution for the life force. My chakra, for instance, that is sealed in your diamond at the back of your neck." He looked at her grimacing. "I'm still trying to work it out. Trading your friend's life for mine was never an option for me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked him.

"I didn't expect us to get this close...so quickly. It surprised me." He looked uncomfortable and she felt guilty.

"We will talk about this later. Sasuke is asking for you Itachi." She motioned for Itachi to go to his brother.

"This conversation isn't over," Itachi said to Madara as he walked past him to Sakura's bedroom.

"I think it is actually." Madara rose from the chair looking at Sakura. "I'm going out, I'll be back later love. Don't wait up."

She nodded.

"Sakura." Shisui began.

"He isn't a bad man Shisui, I can think of many reasons he didn't tell me. He deserves a second chance, just like Sasuke, just like Itachi." She turned to Obito. "Just like you Obito. Shisui, could you go get Kakashi please, he deserves to know Obito is back." She turned and walked to the kitchen to put on a pot of tea. It was almost dawn. No one was going back to sleep tonight.

"Stop by the market and pick up some eggs on your way back please." She called to him as he shut the door to her apartment. "Hn."

She sighed and set the full pot on the burner.

"Sorry for the drama Obito, I bet this isn't how you wanted your first night back home to go." She laughed a little embarrassed.

"It is just how I remember the family actually." He laughed. "Someone thinks they are being manipulated by someone else, someone protecting someone, glares and possible bloodshed. Very Uchiha." He smiled a slow smile. "I had forgotten, almost."

"You are just as he said you were, Kakashi I mean. He told me about you, in my other time. He would tell me how kind you were, how you would walk little old ladies across the street or carry their groceries home for them." She smiled at him.

Obito blushed and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed. "Uh, that was a long time ago."

"But it is still there. The kindness, I can see it." She smiled.

"You are just like her, like Rin." He smiled at her, it was a very sweet smile, it transformed his face. He wasn't the evil mastermind or the crazy childlike killer, he was just Obito.

"Kakashi said that once, before, but not here." She smiled and leaned back against her kitchen counter. "He said you loved her deeply, he felt terrible you know, it haunted him for the rest of his life, both of your deaths, he felt responsible, it made him...darker, changed him. Until get got us, his little Genin Team 7." She shook her head.

"We were a bunch of impossible, hopeless misfits. I think that we, I don't know, helped him. Brought back his humanity in a way." She smiled at him again.

Obito could see why Madara was so drawn to this woman, he felt it too. She was sincere to the point of blinding innocence, almost unreal. An enigma.

Itachi walked out of her bedroom and made his way to the kitchen to speak to Sakura quietly. Obito watched the man called Itachi. He leaned into her personal space possessively, he put a hand on her waist and pulled her into a hug, possessively. What interesting dynamics Obito thought. Itachi turned and nodded to him and Obito nodded back politely. Itachi left the apartment after one last look of...longing?, at Sakura.

Sakura poured out three cups of tea. She smiled at Obito as she set one down in front of him taking the other to the bedroom for Sasuke. She returned shortly and sat next to him on the couch. She sipped her tea and sighed a few more times with her eyes closed as he watched. After a time she opened her eyes and looked to the door of her apartment.

"Shisui and Kakashi will be here soon, they just left the market."

Obito took a sip of his tea, "You can sense them?"

"Yes." She took a sip of her tea.

"Remarkable. From what I could tell you are on the farther side of the village closer to the Uchiha compound than the market. That is a fair distance."

"I was not always so talented." She tapped the seal on the back of her neck. "Madara's chakra, it stimulates my own I think and gives me better awareness."

"How interesting. He showed me, in his Tsukiyomi, the past, what I was." He looked down into his cup.

"Who you were. Lost. Lonely." She smiled at him. "It is not who you have to be, who you can be."

"Rin is gone." He said.

"Kakashi is here, we are here." She countered. "I know it is not the same but, like Kakashi, having people around that care can help."

"Perhaps."

"You are already different than the man I knew, he would not have sat here drinking tea with me." She smiled. "He would have killed me already or at least tried to, all the while talking to me in that childlike whimsy voice of Tobi's." She laughed.

"Ah. It was easier to manipulate people when they thought I was an idiot." He grinned.

"Or more fun?" She teased.

"Yes, it was entertaining to be sure." He smiled back at her.

"I'm so happy you are here for Kakashi, he really needs this, you, friends." She smiled again.

Obito was fascinated. Not since Rin had he ever met someone so kind and sincere.

"They're here." She said as Shisui opened the door to her apartment, without knocking again and walked in followed by Kakashi.

"Obito," Kakashi said slowly standing in front of the door.

"Bakashi." Obito grinned.


End file.
